2005 Ravenswood Icon

"For several vintages, Ravenswood has made a wine called Icon. It was a Rhone blend – Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre all elegantly packaged with our ring of ravens etched into a distinctive bottle. A few years ago, I got to thinking. Was this really the right wine to be carrying such an honorific?


In truth, there’s nothing more representative of California’s winemaking history than the old-time field blends that the original growers planted here as far back as the late 1800s. In tribute to their achievements, which still live on deliciously today, we decided to transform Icon into a California field blend of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Carignane – a truly iconic Sonoma County wine.


When European immigrants came to Sonoma in the 19th Century, they observed the similarities between their new home and their homelands. They knew what grapes grew best in their native soil, and these were the grapes they brought to the New World. In the European tradition, they planted these “mixed blacks” all together, each row, and sometimes each vine, different than the neighbor to its left or right.


Primarily comprised of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Carignane, these “field blends” also included a mixed bag of other grapes – Alicante Bouschet, Mourvedre, Grenache, Tempranillo, Peloursin, etc., etc. (As one example, the Old Hill Vineyard is planted to over 26 varieties.) Because they grow well in the multitude of soils and climates found here – the core elements of terroir—these are the varieties that dominated Sonoma County for most of the 20th Century.


The winemakers of those early days harvested and fermented all those different grapes all together. And the blends crafted from this mélange of fruit were the wines that put “California clarets” on the map.


Grapes for the debut bottling of the new Icon were all sourced from pre-Prohibition and some pre-1900 vineyards, including Zin and Petite Sirah from the Belloni and Rodello Vineyards in the Russian River Valley and Carignane from the Angeli Vineyard up in Cloverdale. These same vineyards contributed grapes for the turn-of-the-century wines that were considered among the best in the world.


We decided to take things back to where they started. We proudly present Icon as a signature wine that reflects the history of California winemaking – an homage to Sonoma County and Ravenswood’s shared heritage. "