Frogs Leap is best known for their traditionally made Cabernet Sauvignon, it’s ability to age gain complexity and nuance. Well, you can add Zinfandel to that list as the bottle of 1993 Frogs Leap Zinfandel Napa Valley was terrific and outperformed our expectations.
Upon opening the wine had an inviting bouquet of red fruit, spicy floral notes and oleoresin vanilla. Flavors followed with fresh red plum and boysenberry, clove, fennel and vanilla. Great fruit concentration, medium acidity, tannins pretty much resolved. Drinking very well but not at peak IMO, still room for secondary development. Pretty amazing how well Zinfandels like this and from Joel Petersen’s Ravenswood brand can age into something special.
I want to mention the pasta we had with the wine. An ancient grain from Abruzzo GRANO SARAGOLLA. Been around for 1500+ years. 15 grams of protein and 3.5 grams of fiber per serving! Plus the bite, texture and chew of the pasta (rigatoni) was superb. With those numbers no need to skip pasta anymore
I love, love , love tasting notes like this. Wines you never thought could age, at least for me, that rock your world. I never got into zin as they where oh so primary when young. I have some old Turleys buried somewhere I need to dig out.
I recently bought a 2016 Frog’s Leap Napa Valley Zinfandel. It is 13.8%.
It’s 78% zin, 20% PS, 2% Carignane.
The back label says “our dry farmed Zinfandel vines turn their focus to the lighter, elegant side of the heritage grape, with bright, brambly fruit, complex perfume, and moderate alcohol making this wine delicious now and for many years in the future.”
What I need to do is try one, confirm if it’s as good as I’m hoping, and get more to sock away.