2018 Beekeeper Cellars Hidden Hillside Reserve Zinfandel | Rockpile AVA, Sonoma County CA 750ml

2018 shows off a very robust vintage with floral notes, amazing perfume, and bold streaks of richness, Hillside character and dense fleshy intense Zinfandel fruit. Hidden Hillside is a Reserve selection, blending our most ambitious barrels together to make one of our more daring and bold Zinfandel statements, which features approximately 30% new high-tier French Oak. Beekeeper seeks to change minds about Zinfandel and to elevate standards for this amazing grape varietal. Dark, floral notes, spice, dried herb, and underbrush give way to purple plum, dark cherry, cracked black pepper, gravel, stone, and creme brulee. The elevated acidity from higher elevation hillside fruit ensures that this wine will age gracefully for a decade or more. | Beekeeper Cellars

The nose is nectarine, mint and blueberry with underlying watermelon and lemongrass. The palate entry is dense blueberry with bright impressions of herb and sticky blackberry in the core finishing with silky dough-like texture to the fresh red plum and dry raspberries. | 94 points, Purely Domestic Wine Report

Here, again, is an altogether exceptional effort from Beekeeper that is as deep, keenly defined and well-stuffed as any around, and it, too, exhibits terrific fruity purity despite being emphatically ripe. It is a full and muscular wine that makes no pretense to delicacy, and the slight heat that rises in its tannin-firmed finish is a small price to pay for a wine of such richness... | 94 points, Connoisseurs' Guide