SFChron: Turley White Zin...Egads...

JonBonne has an article on the new 2011 Turley White Zin:
SFChron:TurleyWhiteZin

According to his article, this is a new wine for Turley. Wonder what kind of rock Jon has been hiding under. If you do a Google on “Turley Smoot-Hawley” you can find all sorts of references to previos Turley White Zins:
Google:TurleySmoot-Hawley

including entries for it on CellarTracker and availablle for sale at VinFolio.
Bizarre…it is.
Tom

Seems like a rather glaring mistake…I don’t read Jon Bonne’s column, does he do this kind of thing often?

I guess I’d cut Jon some slack on this one, Beau. The Turley Smoot-Hawley White Zin was exceedingly rare and I doubt Jon would have heard of it.
Though the British author, TomStevenson, referred to it in his book on Calif wines, as the most expensive WhiteZin in Calif.
But Jon is usually very accurate in his columns. One of my favorite wine columnists whom I read all the time.
Tom

Don’t you own the only magnum produced of the Smoot-Hawley White Zin, Tom? [cheers.gif]

Production was so small that no mags were made. I did snag one hlf btl though!!! [snort.gif]
Tom

Anybody here had it ? Curious what people who have it think about it. Yes, I am fully aware of the great reputation of the wine.

I think the “white zin” from Smoot-Hawley was a Petite Sirah. At least that’s what the label says on my bottle…

First, it’s bone dry, even more refreshing than many of the rosés I recently recommended. At 11.2 percent alcohol (the grapes were picked on her birthday, Sept. 9, at 18.7 Brix from Turley’s Napa Valley estate vineyards) it shows a surprising depth — orange peel and mint leaf aromas amid a lot of bright strawberry fruit, although its bantamweight nature might be a departure from what most Turley fans have come to expect.

That doesn’t sound bad, and it’s only $19. I’d probably buy a bottle or two if I were stopping at Turley (which I may do this summer), if only to keep an open mind to different things out there that could possibly result in good wines.

The only serious producer from whom I’ve tried a rose of zin from is Dehlinger (2009). It’s a pretty good wine, a bit too heavy for a rose, but it’s a saignee and not a-rose-that-is-from-grapes-harvested-much-earlier-solely-to-make-rose (avoiding offending anyone by using a shorter name for that type of rose), so probably fairly different from this Turley.