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When it comes to good ol’ fashioned California Zinfandel, there’s one name that stands head and shoulders over all the others when it comes to sheer hedonistic pleasure: Turley Cellars! Turley, of course, raised what was a pretty low bar for Zinfandel when it first burst on the scene in the mid-1990s; a time when we had to ask customers whether or not they meant red Zin when they ordered. The Turley style emphasized ripe fruit, elevated levels of alcohol and, above all, a gorgeous, plush hedonistic sort of texture. Most importantly, Turley established a home for the grapes of some of America’s oldest and most endangered Zinfandel vineyards, over the decades creating a stable of old sites throughout California that would hold them in great stead.

The Turley Estate Zinfandel truly is their ‘backyard wine,’ as it grows in the backyard of the Turley family home just north of Saint Helena. The six acres of vines are certified organic, head-trained, dry-farmed and were planted back in 2006 on the rich alluvial soil with scatterings of obsidian. Fermented on its native yeast and aged using 80% used oak, 20% new; 80% French, 20% American (the only new barrels are French) it’s a plush, lavishly textured wine. Floral and bright, though, with fresh herbs rounded out by notes of black cherries and blackberries. On the palate the wine is full of juicy, sweet red fruits and a long, hedonistic finish with extremely smooth tannins.

Have your way with this lovely Napa Valley Zin tonight or any time over the next 5 to 10 years.

Wine Spectator, 94 points: Deeply structured and detailed, with rich blackberry and tart cherry flavors blending with briar patch, white pepper and savory anise notes that build tension toward medium-grained tannins. Drink now through 2035.