I have a well stored 750 1978 David Bruce Late Harvest Zin. Cannot find any info on line. Help?
Answer From Expert Roger Bohmrich MW
I cannot find any information on this exact wine on the internet or in older books about California wine. David Bruce is of course a well-known figure in the modern history of California winemaking, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. He was a medical doctor who set up a bonded winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1964. Bruce was, curiously, apparently the first to develop what we now call a White Zinfandel and experimented with many grape varieties and techniques. There is a fascinating interview with Bruce from 1999, which is part of the California Wine Oral History Series (available at texts.cdlib.org and other links). There may well be many points of interest for you in this interview. Bruce says, for example, that he did not use sulfur dioxide for the "first fifteen years," which would presumably have been from 1964 to 1979 (and thus including your 1978). He believed that Zinfandel "can become very lovely with age" and made many variations of this variety including both sweet and dry late harvest iterations ranging from 15.5% to 17.5% alcohol. He claimed in the interview that one of these Zins reached 18.8%, an extraordinary level - probably a record - for a natural fermentation and without fortification. I don't know if any of this is of help, but the David Bruce story is certainly a very interesting one.
