Description
The first thing to know about Michael David is that the brother’s have a sense of humour. The second is that they have never let this come between them and a good glass of wine and who could ask more than that? These are fun wines – it’s lovely having them in the portfolio! The Phillips family have been farming in Lodi since the 1860’s and the current generation are the 5th to be growing grapes. They make a large quantity of different wines now under a lot of different labels – we selected originally just the Freakshow & Lodi wines but were soon seduced into stocking a range of the others as well. Big, powerful styles with delicious full fruit, soft silky layers and a long aftertaste – they are simple to love and built to please. Behind this, the brothers have a deep respect for their environment, having helped to write the Lodi Rules Sustainability guidelines and ensuring all their wines abide by it.
Lodi in 1906 was a very different place to what we see today. Instead of a large number of small winemakers, the land was almost wholly owned by several large farms, with smallholders unable to buy plots. The lack of competition resulted in the wines being bulk production with little or no innovation.
Then came the earthquake, levelling much of northern California and hit Lodi hard, levelling much of the previous infrastructure. The old, large farms were unable to repair fast enough and were caught by the State's ruling that all buildings which could not be replaced or repaired within a few years were to be sold.
The result was instead of this landscape dominated by a few large farms, Lodi was quickly broken up into a large number of smaller producers, all buying patches of the old estates. Competition between these made Lodi into one of the most experimental and highly thought of wine regions in California, and today is known as the premier region for the production of Zinfandel, due to it's warm climate.
And the reason Michael and David Philips named one of their top wines after such an event? Because their family was one of those who were able to buy their land in this period.
And because the wine rocks, obviously!
Winemaker’s Notes: “Over the top and shattering to the veins, these wines possess major concentration and daring flavour. The original is the Earthquake Zin which came from an old Lodi vineyard planted around the same time of San Francisco’s great Earthquake of 1906. While mulling over a label name in the vineyard, Michael Phillips thought it only seemed fitting to relate this intense wine with the historical quake. These dark and voluminous wines will definitely leave your senses quivering.
Critical Review: “This wine smoulders with concentrated blackberries, blueberries and huckleberries that intermingle with orange zest, cinnamon sugar, cardamom and pomegranate. These give way to bittersweet chocolate, black coffee and silky tannins. Aerate for an hour. Drink or hold till 2028.” 91 Pts, Wine Enthusiast