I am deciding between 1993 Ravenswood Wood Road, a 1999 Villa Mt. Eden Monte Rosso, a 2012 Turley Mead Ranch, and 2011 Carlisle Papera Ranch. So a win, win, win, win scenario.
2012 Carlisle Sonoma County Zinfandel; bright flavors with significant structure and length.
Opened a 2012 Jimsomare tonight for National Zinfandel day. Quite enjoyable.
2011 Grant-Eddie with pork roulade here. Really nice stuff…why aren’t they better known?
Bedrock Puccini Vineyard - The earthquake relief wine.
My kind of Zin. Lots of wood, leather, cedar, black pepper. Had some blackberry. I think I killed a baby. Very much enjoyed this wine, but I would recommend giving it some more time. It bet more fruit will pop over time.
Thomas,
I haven’t had the LS '81 in some yrs. So can’t recall how it was doing.
Tom
My pleasure, Terence. It’s not like I’m about to run out of Zinfandel. When I started casting about for a Zin to serve to my group last night (Carliisle Montafi '08),
I realized I’ve got a $hitload of Zins I need to start working on.
Sorry about the 4 Ravenswoods being goners. That happens w/ older Zins & they can be pretty variable. Let’s hope I didn’t go 0-6.
Tom
Alan,
I think Thomas pretty much has nailed it here. You look at the label and see the alcohol % and sorta gasp in shock. But they seem to carry those
alcohols just fine w/o being particularly hot & fumey. It’s sorta Milan’s way of doing things.
Tom
Having just picked up the recent Bedrock shipment and having just ordered from the new release, I realized I needed to start drinking more of these to open up some room. A 2011 Papera was very nice on a cold night. Drinking well now but I’ll let my other bottle sit a bit while I move through others.
My wife and I shared a 2007 of this. Loved it. She had a rare 2nd glass! Happy National Zinfandel Day!
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We popped a 2007 Ridge Geyserville. No tasting note due to personal reasons our hearts were not really in this year’s Zinfandel day, just wanted some alcohol. Wine was decanted off a small amount of sediment and had a dark ruby color. Fruit is there but fading and acidity is prominent, not in a bad way. For someone who’s had some great old Geyservilles, I can see this wine starting the transition into one of those. It seems like an in-between hop for this bottle, but still enjoyable.
CARLISLE and BEDROCK -
Are these the only two Zinfandels you people purchase? I realize that both produce superb wines, and couldn’t have more likable staffs - but really?
SO MUCH old vine juice out there, and I know all of you guys are doing extensive homework on California wineries. This literally reminds me of the late 1960s when we had about 4-5 great Cabernets coming out of the Napa Valley and everyone was drinking one of the two.
I can think of 30-40 Sierra Foothills wineries producing terrific Zinfandels today, all of them have easy access to all of you. Why is everyone stuck on the same two brands?
Isn’t that like eating the same pizza every night for dinner?
And something like 2400 acres of Zin in Dry Creek Valley.
Guess Dry Creek Vyds and Pedroncelli ain’t trendy. lol
Unfortunately, Pedroncelli will never be “trendy”, regardless of producing the greatest values in Sonoma for what - 50+ years?
I know I am a huge fan, and have more Pedroncelli Cabernet and Zinfandel in my cellar than any other winery in California - and have since the early 80s. So, I guess it’s good that they never became “trendy”, so I can still keep pulling out 20+ year old Pedroncelli Cabernets out of my cellar and snicker like hell when they blow away wines 4-5 times the price.
About a month ago my brother-in-law found various bottles of wines at an estate sale. The provenance of these wines was not clear. He did not see a sophisticated storage facility in the house, but the labels looked pretty good. When other buyers started grabbing some of them, he joined in and picked up 5-6 of the “best looking” bottles. Since I am his favorite red-wine drinking b-i-l, he gave them to me. We opened a 1980 Bordeaux at his house and it was reasonably drinkable. In the last few weeks I’ve opened an '89 BV Rutherford Cab, that was pretty bad and an '80 Freemark Abbey Bosche that was back to the OK level.
For National Zinfandel Day, I picked another one from the estate sale lot–1983 Guenoc Lake County Zinfandel. Again the bottle and label looked in pretty good shape. However, as a backup, I pulled a 2006 Ridge Lytton Springs.
Well, I can’t say that the Guenoc was anything close to a tanscendent wine experience, but it was total fun drinking a 30 year-old Zinfandel with our ravioli, last night. As you might imagine, not a lot of fruit flavor–maybe, just a tad of blackberry or prune–but more earthiness. Not a hint of oxidation or vinegary tartness. A very pleasant surprise. There was a worn price tag on the bottle. The price for this wine in 1980-something was $4.99.
The Lytton Springs went back into the cellar for another day.
Still have the two on the right waiting for Thanksgiving. ;-D
Going to open Scherrer OMV tonight, maybe the 2005.
Enjoyed a 2012 Turley 101 Zinfandel last night, which was pitch perfect for the occasion.
Morgan, did you pop that Mead Ranch? Drinking beautifully right now.
The Carlisle didn’t disappoint. Drank last night and tonight and it was wonderful. Raspberries, a little pepper, spice, and the tannins were smooth. If I had self control or patience, this would have aged nicely for quite a few years.
I’m so glad I have rediscovered Zinfandel.
I missed the whole event, though I did unpack a couple case Carlisle shipment yesterday including a couple Bedrock Vineyards. Other recent Zins include Ridge, Linne Calodo, Denner, and Zin Alley. And while Tobin James is not especially prestigious, I do enjoy Fat Boy on occasion.