And it’s OVER HALF OFF until Sunday 8/16 at midnight! Master winemaker Clark Smith is back with the perfect 10 (94+ point) Winesmith Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel from the Grist Vineyard first planted in 1869. You don’t want to miss this!
Clark Smith is one of our favorite winemakers and judging by the sales of his past deals, he is one of your very favorites too. Today he’s back with another special one, a single vineyard Zin from the extremely old Grist Vineyard in the Dry Creek Valley.
The vineyard, which was first planted in 1869, sits 1000 feet above sea level at the top of Bradford Mountain. The volcanic soils and old vines result in low yields and loads of concentration. Add these excellent grapes to Clark’s exceptional winemaking abilities and wow!
We first offered this wine almost 4 years ago and recently re-tasted it when we found out the winery had a few more cases available (just 153 were produced). Clark’s note below about this wine being able to age for decades is right on and if anything it is even better than it was 4 years ago.
This wine normally retails for $50 a bottle and somehow, despite rampant inflation, today’s deal price is even lower than it was 4 years ago!
For the next two days (unless it sells out sooner) we’re slashing the price by more than half saving you over $26 per bottle…
Today’s Insider Deal gets you 3 bottles of the 2019 Winesmith Dry Creek Valley Grist Vineyard Zinfandel for just $69.95, that’s a discount of 53%!
ADD TO CART – SUMMER HOLD $69.95 $150
ADD TO CART – SUMMER SHIP $77.95 $158
Given the limited quantities, this is very likely to sell out so get those orders in quick if you would like to take part.
This 3-pack deal is available to ship to the following states: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TX, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV and WY. (These states are dependent on the individual licenses of the offering winery and are not representative of all our deals. Every deal can have different, sometimes more, sometimes less, states available.)
Unless it sells sell out sooner, this limited time, winery direct offer will end in just…
Clicking on the Add To Cart button above will take you to our checkout at shop.reversewinesnob.com. Once there you can adjust the quantity of 3-packs in your order. Ends Sunday 8/16/2026 at midnight (PT). Read on for our full review.
Summer 2026 Shipping Info
Shipping is a flat $9.99 per order, no matter how many packs you buy. This applies to both Summer Shipments AND Summer Holds. Summer Shipments also have an additional charge built into the product price for the heat protection package. Here’s how it works:
Summer Ship (+$8 for the Heat Protection Package) – Packages ship in styrofoam and use refrigerated shipping. This includes refrigerated trucks to local hubs for the South, Midwest and East Coast and internal refrigeration (ice packs) in boxes for the West Coast (AZ, CA, ID, NV, OR, WA). Final delivery will be on regular UPS trucks without refrigeration (just like last year), thus the reason for the styrofoam.
Note that unlike last year, packages will not go 2-day air as the refrigerated trucks are a better option, however this will add additional transit time. Trucks will only pick up from our shipper once per week so with our normal order processing time of up to 10 days before orders are sent out, packages will likely take anywhere from 2-3 weeks to arrive in-home.
These orders have an additional cost of $8 built into the product price for this Heat Protection Package. It is NOT possible (nor would it be advisable!) to purchase a deal with summer shipping without also including the Heat Protection Package.
Summer Hold – Buy your wine now and have your shipment held in a temperature controlled warehouse for delivery in October! While we take every precaution we can with our Summer Shipping protocol, we also know that many of you travel or live in very hot areas where you don’t want to risk it (or you simply detest styrofoam).
Please note this is not a “ship-at-will” program, all your summer hold orders will ship (in cardboard/no styrofoam) at a date of our choosing in mid-October once temperatures have cooled down. Please read this post for important info to determine if the Summer Hold program is right for you.
If this is your first time ordering please check out the shipping section of our FAQ for more information.
For your convenience you also have the option to select a UPS Store/Access Point to ship to at checkout (with no additional pickup fee) so you don’t have to be home to sign! For Summer Hold orders whatever shipping location option you choose at checkout (ship to home or ship to UPS Store/Access Point) will apply in October.
The 2019 Winesmith Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel is 90% Zinfandel and 10% Petite Sirah from the Grist Vineyard in Dry Creek Valley. The wine is aged in neutral French Oak for 16 months. Just 153 cases were produced.
From the winery:
I have a hard time getting my French gurus to take Zinfandel seriously. They don’t judge wine by the fruity aromatics, which abound in many California Zins. They want the wine to behave itself in the mouth. Because Zinfandel ripens unevenly, with green berries and raisins on the same cluster, its texture is brash and grainy.
The exception is Dry Creek Valley, which always delivers classic Bordelaise elegant tannin structure worthy of the finest Super Tuscan. The venerable Grist Vineyard is the acknowledged jewel in the DCV Zin crown, and we are vastly fortunate to have been granted access to a couple tons from our friend and colleague Woody Hambrecht.
Nobody disputes that this is the best wine we made in 2019. We picked at relatively low brix, co-fermented with Petite Sirah for its co-extraction properties (thank you Paul Draper for this trick). The wine pretty much made itself.
This result is indescribably delicious. Intense raspberries with oak toast accents lead to explosive fruit in the mouth, stylish texture and a long, minerally finish unmarred by alcohol. You just want to hug yourself.
Classy stuff. Unlike most “clown-style” impact Zins on the market today, this wine will age wonderfully for several decades, acquiring in the process some sexy aromatics like old Riesling does.
I like it with grilled sausages or rigatoni with a pancetta/gorgonzola sauce. It’s also wonderful with classic Bordeaux dishes like Tornadoes Chateau Figeac (filet mignon with artichoke hearts, truffle and bearnaise).
Vineyard Location: Grist Vineyard
Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County
First planted in 1869
90% Zinfandel, 10% Petite SirahHarvest Date: 20 September 2019
Harvest Sugar: 24.4 BrixFermentation techniques: 100% crush/destem
Anchor NT112 yeast inoculum
7 gm/L untoasted Alliers chips, air seasoned 2 yrsElevage details: Micro-oxygenated pre-ML at 90 mg/L/month
Malolactic fermentation in barrel
Neutral French oak aged 16 months
TA 5.9 g/L, pH 3.45 at bottling13.5% Alcohol
Cork
And now on to our review:
A strong, enticing dark berry fruit aroma leads the way on the 2019 Winesmith Dry Creek Valley Grist Vineyard Zinfandel and is joined by wonderful, savory touches of licorice, spice, and even some dried herbs and balsamic. It almost smells like an aged Rioja!
Tasting reveals a dry, savory and utterly delicious Zin. Full of deep flavors, it is beautifully balanced with just 13.5% alcohol has no heat at all (as opposed to many other big and over the top Zins pushing 16% alcohol). Add in a smooth and silky mouthfeel, gorgeous structure and wonderfully integrated spice to go with the dark berry, brambly fruit and this is really something special.
It ends dry, a bit grippy and extremely long with lasting spice notes and even a little minerality. It’s so terribly drinkable right now it hurts but according to Clark this can age for “several decades”. Good luck resisting it for that long! We did manage to save a bit to taste on day 2 and it was just as good.
You might also want to watch Clark’s tasting video for this wine.
Cheers,
Jon
2019 WINESMITH DRY CREEK VALLEY ZINFANDEL
Taste: 10 (94+ Points) Cost: 1
OVERALL RATING: 7.8
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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Get the 2019 Winesmith Dry Creek Valley Grist Vineyard Zinfandel while you can! This deal ends Sunday 8/16 at midnight Pacific.
If you have more questions or any trouble ordering, please check out our FAQ or just click the Help button at checkout! No account is necessary to save your info for future orders or to checkout. GPay and Apple Pay are also enabled.
