We’ve got a very special wine for you today, dear Operative! We haven’t featured a Seghesio wine since 2016, but not for lack of trying. Their wines are just very difficult to come by. Especially those limited wines, like today’s special Seghesio Family Vineyards 2015 Defiant Sonoma County Red Wine.

This wine has beautiful even garnet coloring throughout the heart, spreading out to a ruby lip. You’ll find an aromatic nose that is exceptionally inviting, with notes of all the red fruit, cherry, strawberry and raspberry, with hints of cassis, black tea and mild lavender. The flavor profile is surprisingly different from the nose, with much more spice, toffee, black fruit and plum compote. Give this wine time to open fully and you’ll be rewarded with a structured wine, with powerful tannin providing the necessary backdrop for intense flavors sliding into a long finish. For this wine, go with your own choice of meat with a side of roasted red and golden beets with harissa crumbles.

The Seghesio Family is one of Sonoma County’s longest-standing winemaking families. They planted their first vineyards in 1885 - and for five generations they’ve been perfecting their art of grape growing and winemaking. Today’s wine is a great reminder of just how good Seghesio’s wine can be.

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Here’s what the wine press has to say.

90 Points - Wine Spectator - “Savory black cherry aromas lead to well-framed flavors of sage and pepper. A new blend from this winery offers the zest of Zinfandel with the focus of Cabernet Sauvignon. Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Alicante, Barbera and Syrah. Drink now through 2027. 5,000 cases made.”