- 1994 Ravenswood Zinfandel Cooke - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (12/3/2025)
The Ravenswood library releases that Joel Peterson has done have been more than an opportunity to acquire excellent wine. They have been a chance to time travel. One of my first obsessions when getting deeply into wine was the Ravenswood single vineyard Zinfandels. Hunting through various wine shops I would grab every Monte Rosso, Old Hill, Dickerson, and Cooke vineyard Zin I could find. Fast forward 25 years and Joel was selling mystery cases of old Ravenswood Zins and other wines. Did I buy more than my fair share? Hell yes!
Somehow I managed to assemble a fairly lengthy vertical of Cooke Zin - six vintages. While I thought about putting them together in a tasting, I decided it would be better to drink them one by one. Tonight I reached into the box, and the 1994 came out. That was the first vintage where I had bought the wines in some quantity, though I missed out on Cooke that year. It’s nice to get a second chance.
Still vibrant red, with just a touch of bricking, the aromas started with red cherry and cedar. Air brought age and wisdom - old books, leather, and a gravelly undertone grounding the wine despite the fading structure. It’s the present and the past all in the same glass.
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No Wimpy Wines!
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Hope you have the 88…it is fantastic! SO red fruited and youthful.
Oldest I have is the 1991.
Any idea where these grapes go now if they still exist?
I thought the vineyard was gone.
Same here, David. Specifically the 1990-1993 vintages when I lived in Sacramento and the wines were at least somewhat available. When I moved to Oregon in 1995 they became harder to find and my palate went more towards Europe. I still remember those wines, and I don’t think they were quite as good in the late '90s. I missed out on the Ravenswood mystery boxes but still look for those wines, and other old Zins from that time, at auction.
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The wines were still really good through 1997. I moved to other things after that point, but not because of the Ravenswood wines.
David,
When Joel still owned Ravenswood, one of the Russell wine tours visited and, the participants having many old vintages of his Zins, brought quite a few along.
He opened some of his newer vintages and then we blind tasted him on the older ones we’d brought. He didn’t miss a single call.
Of course, he knew they were his Zins. and that they were older than what he’d served but even so, it was quite a display.
Someone among us said that he had the equivalent of an eidetic memory for wines. He had tasted pre-phylloxera stuff with his Dad and could still describe them. And on this day, no one could argue his ability.
Sometimes, I think that ability has been passed down to his son; Morgan’s made some pretty remarkable identifications that I’ve seen and his descriptions of wines we’ve both had in the past jives with mine.
This family is wine/Sonoma royalty.
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Yes, know those '90s Ravenswood zinfandels well. But 1994!? Wow. California vintage of century IMO (blanket truism for my wine experiences to date).