Notes from the Archivist

"Queen's Bounty"

All hail the Queen! Today marks Archival’s first Coronation of Zinfandel.

“Queen’s Bounty” certainly has the pedigree. Bred from a winemaker who has quite literally shaped modern “cult” Cabernet in Napa and sourced from a producer especially known for their work with Zinfandel, this is indeed a crown-worthy pick to claim our first Zinfandel release.

And when she’s not chasing perfection with Cabernet for some of Napa’s most elite producers, she’s passionately working to enchant other grapes with her magic touch. That includes making some badass Zinfandel for one small family producer atop Howell Mountain, where she’s served as their winemaker for almost three decades.

This one comes from old vines on a single hillside vineyard in Calistoga. The name of which must remain hidden. And while the source is redacted, the savviest among you can probably venture a guess without much digging. Their Zins fetch $60-70 on release, and always seem to garner critical praise in the mid 90s.

We’re both picky about Zinfandel. It’s often insipid, flabby, and overripe. Or lacking complexity – one dimensional, and missing a few notes up high or down low. That’s where a little backup from something like Merlot, Petite Sirah, or Syrah can help. Here, we went with 8% Petite to fatten up the mid palate and give it a little soul – like Merry Clayton in the Stones “Gimme Shelter”, it just works perfectly. When it has this kind of balance and complexity, Zinfandel can shine, and this hits all the right notes.

Uncork it and this shows off with plenty of fruit, spice, and exotic woods on the nose. On entry it carries the tune with red vines, wild strawberry and red plums, framed with cedar, clove and amber, and a peppery kick on the clean finish. Gentle, integrated tannins and palate-cleansing acidity carry it all in perfect harmony. Bright, juicy, and mouthwatering, this should prove a very food-friendly wine, perfect with braised and bbq meats, burgers and hearty pastas.

This will go down as a favorite, for sure. Load up while it’s here!
93 points – Decanter (published in June) 

“The Queen’s Bounty is a bountiful Zinfandel from the Calistoga AVA and offers up a generous, easy-going, yet seriously structured red wine with elegant red berry fruit and warm baking spices, along with notes of cedar and blood orange. A creamy mid-palate of lush red berry fruit is never too sweet, but perfectly tamed and balanced by fine-grained, slightly grippy tannins that give the wine real verve and tension. Subtle cocoa powder notes and orange peel linger on the satisfying finish.”

Winemaker Addendum

How It Came About

Every great wine starts with a good story, and this one starts with a chance conversation in a cellar in Calistoga.

It was December of 2025, and I was visiting a buddy of mine, an assistant winemaker there, just talking shop. “I’m kind of looking around for a Zin,” I told him. He didn’t have anything of his own to offer, but he mentioned a client of his: a legendary Napa Valley producer, one I’d long held as a benchmark for Howell Mountain Zinfandel, who was making something special from a single vineyard right there in Calistoga.

We walked over to the barrel and pulled a sample. I was floored. The wine wasn’t even ready yet, but I could already tell what it was going to become. I asked my friend to reach out to the winemaker and proprietor to see if they’d be willing to peel off a few barrels for us, with the plan to take delivery in February or March.

A month or two later, the call came back: they had three barrels for us. I was ecstatic. Not only would we be working with a producer I’d admired for years, but the wine itself was exactly the style of Zinfandel I wanted to put in front of our Archival customers.

The Fruit

The final wine is 92% Zinfandel and 8% Petite Sirah, both from single vineyards in Calistoga, sitting just two miles apart. Both are old-vine, dry-farmed fruit: the Zinfandel from vines planted forty years ago, the Petite Sirah from vines that have been in the ground for seventy-five.

Building the Blend

Once the Zinfandel barrels arrived, I brought them into our winery — where I already had a Petite Sirah of my own making resting in barrel, made and aged right there before this Zin ever showed up. I called Mike. “I’ve got some great Petite Sirah already sitting here,” I told him. “This Zin is so forward in fruit, with a beautiful mid-palate, but I think that Petite Sirah could really lend something to the back end.” I’ve always been a proponent of Petite Sirah — that brambly, earthy, spicy character, and the structure it brings to a wine. I tend to lean toward a more structured style; Mike leans softer and more fruit-forward. That’s exactly why the two of us work so well together at the blending table.

I wanted to push to 12% Petite Sirah. Mike wanted to hold it back to 4-6%. We landed at 8%, and it’s a good compromise, one that gives the wine real balance and a perspective that neither of us would have gotten to alone. Mike tastes constantly through his work at Wine Spies, and he doesn’t carry the “cellar palate” that twenty years of winemaking can sometimes give me. That makes him an invaluable partner when it’s time to make these calls.

The Wine Today

Honestly, for the first three or four months after bottling, I thought this wine came across a little too oaky, and the fruit wasn’t showing the way I wanted it to. Tasting it again this week, here in September, it’s really coming together. The oak has settled onto the finish rather than carrying all the way through, the spice is sitting right where I want it, and the wine feels cohesive rather than any one element trying to dominate. It’s balanced, the way we hoped it would be from that first sample pulled straight from the barrel.

Why Queen’s Bounty Matters to Us

This is a Zinfandel we’re genuinely proud to add to the portfolio: a true Napa Valley benchmark, sourced from old vines and a producer most people never get the chance to work with. We love Cabernet as much as anyone, but we can’t all drink Cab every day. Queen’s Bounty is part of our push to bring you Cab alternatives, food-friendly wines alongside our Cabernet-based bottlings — and we hope, one day, to bring you a full Petite Sirah too. For now, we’re proud to share this one with you.