2019 Field Trippin', Mixed Blacks, Mendocino, Redwood Valley

Let's go on a field trip.

We're dropping that good shit with Field Trippin', our new limited-production Mixed Blacks from Redwood Valley, Mendocino. If you liked the gooey, luscious flavors of wines like Bring Black Roses and MDNA, you're about to get psyched.

First an introduction to field blends. Normally when wineries make a wine "blend" they will typically pick and press the individual grape varieties separately, and then precisely combine them together at a later point. But that shit's not rustic enough for us. With a field blend, we head to a vineyard, pick all the amazing, often mysterious, grape varieties together, then haul them back to the crib to press together as well. Hence the "Mixed Blacks." With this old school technique, we leave a lot of the stylistic decisions to the gods, and they often times have way better judgement than us.

Which goes without saying, you need an awesome vineyard source if you are going to fuck around with field blends. In this case, we partnered with an old vine vineyard in the Redwood Valley appellation of Mendocino. Here, a random planting of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon, and some ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ varieties scatter the vineyard's red volcanic soils. Redwood Valley features a cooler climate, due to a gap in the coastal ridge that allows in cool Pacific air currents, leading to a slower, gradual ripening season.

So with all this magic lined up for us, our only goal was to not mess it up. Picked in late September of 2019 and brought back to press, this wine spent nearly 20 months in barrel to allow the flavors to meddle and tannins to soften.

The best way to describe this is a barbecue wine. With a dark garnet color and inviting aromas of blackberry cobbler, vanilla, and cinnamon, it's hard to resist taking a sip. Once you do, though, harmonious flavors of blackberry, wild cherry, pomegranate, and cola intermingle with rustic complexity, leather, and spice. The tannin and structure are perfect and the finish is chefskiss.gif.

We wanted to celebrate the old school techniques, rustic heritage, and trippy flavors of this wine, so we went all the way back to an old photo many of you used to see at the garage and finally gave it a chance to shine on the label of a really, really impressive wine.

And just to shoot straight with you, Tank people LOVE big dark wines like this. We could only squeeze out 45 cases, and it's going to fly. Field Trippin' is available starting Friday, March 25th at 10 AM PT. Be there or be square.