The 2023 Carlisle Winery Zinfandel “Pagani Ranch” is a Sonoma Valley field-blend anchored in old-vine fruit from the ranch’s oldest blocks, planted circa the 1890s. It’s also a marker for the estate: Carlisle has described 2023 as its “last complete vintage” ahead of founder Mike Officer’s retirement (with 2024 slated as the final vintage). Production is small at 377 cases, released in March 2026 at $56 and sold out at the winery.

In the glass, this is a classically built Carlisle Zinfandel with a more vintage-driven emphasis on structure and energy. Jeb Dunnuck gives it an excellent 95 points, calling the nose “stunning,” with “beautiful fresh highlights” and “red and black fruit and floral perfume,” detailing “kirsch… fresh blueberries, purple flowers, delicate baking spices, and sweet earth.” Dunnuck also points to the year’s “tremendous structure,” describing a “tension-driven feel” while emphasizing that it’s “fully ripe” and should improve, recommending drinking 2026–2040.

Wine Spectator (92 points) underscores the wine’s darker, more savory side, describing it as “brooding at the core but richly textured,” with “wild berry and red plum flavors accented by roasted sage, brown baking spices and pepper,” and “hints of fresh earth” leading into “refined yet burly tannins.” That combination suggests a Zinfandel that leans as much toward spice, earth, and grip as toward straightforward sweetness.

Vinous (92 points) agrees on the aromatic profile—“kirsch, blood orange, hard candy, cinnamon and dried flowers”—and calls it “tightly wound and compact.” Antonio Galloni adds a note of reservation, finding it “a bit light texturally relative to the norm for this site” and suggesting “something about the wine’s balance is not ideal,” though the score still places it solidly in very good territory.

The wine is 14.8% alcohol and made as a predominantly Zinfandel blend with a small addition of Alicante Bouschet for color and length, aged in French oak (22% new) and bottled unfined and unfiltered.