Weird and wonderful wines

[AskoKassinen]

Every now and then one has to embrace the weird. Thanks @Otto_Forsberg.
This time a number of natural wines, and some others not exactly mainstream. Fortunately, two last flights eg last 6 wines were more according to the norm. Opinions may differ, naturally. No pun intended.

My the top three wines were: The Tokai Lenkey Túlélő (Survivor) 2.0 2014. Very nice dry Furmint wine. The Rosenblum Zinfandel Alegria 1999 worked very well. Amazing wines these old Rosenblum Zins. And the Saperavi ”Pheasant’s Tears”. For me, there is always something different about these Saperavi wines from Georgia. Fruity and earthy, meaty notes with nice frame and structure. Next in line would be the d’Arenberg The Twentyeight Road Mourvedre 2010. Time has been good for this wine.

Schug was strange, meaty, smokey. Longoria was ok, nothing sticking or poking, ok drink but not exactly exciting.

Unfortunately the SA ’89 Cabernet was corked.

On the other end of experiences, Khareba Monastery Qvevri and Bibich Žutina. Need a ’different’ wine experience, try these.

Lipanović Vugava 2023
Lenkey Túlélő (Survivor) 2.0 2014
Bibich Žutina 2022
Khareba Monastery Qvevri Wine Krakhuna 2015
Luyt Tinto Chileno Assemblage 2022
Chatzivaritis Goumenissa 2017
Strohmeier Rot 8 TLZ 2017
Schug Carneros Pinot Noir 2010
Longoria Pinot Noir Bien Nacido Vineyard 2010
Rosenblum Zinfandel Alegria 1999
Pheasant’s Tears Saperavi 2013
d’Arenberg The Twentyeight Road Mourvedre 2010
Allesverloren Estate Wine Cabernet Sauvignon 1989

[MadsW]

Love the whites of Strohmeier. The reds can be hit-or-miss in my experience.

[M_Meer]

Alegria is a fantastic old vine plot, first planted in 1890s. I was able to taste there several years back and very much enjoyed the zinfandel.

"Some of the wines are field blends, like the Alegria Zinfandel, which has Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet and several other varieties that are interplanted in the vineyard…

The Alegria Vineyard in Russian River Valley, owned by Bill and Betsy Nachbaur of Acorn Winery, still has some of the original 1890s-planted vines in production; the youngest vines are 50 years old."

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Shipyard-vintner-First-class-Zinfandels-set-2714164.php

[AskoKassinen]

Back in October 2022 we had a Rosenblum vs Turley Zinfandel ‘duel’. Was tight.

Last nite a duel of Zinfandels, Turley ‘versus’ Rosenblum. Elegant Zinfandels. There is an oxymoron like no other. Usually the Zinfandels are big jammy, soft and sweet and high on alcohol. Not so with these, well the alcohol was definitely high but was surprisingly well in hiding. Quality producers combined with appropriate bottle age are the keys here.

Tight duel. Rosenblums are more structure driven, where Turleys emphasizes more the fruit. Just calling the drivers of the styles, neither one is lacking on one or the other. I actually preferred Rosneblums for this reason. The structure, the grippy even a bit austere and old-world style frame combined with the deep fruity character of Zinfandel got me. Not to complain about them Turleys, fruit driven yes, but the frame was in place and carried the wines.

Audience voted 3 to 1 in favor of Turleys. On pair was a tie. It was tight with every pair but the first and the last. Turley got those fair and square. Personally, I got Rosenblums on top 3-2. The first pair was a bit distant ref geography. The rest pretty much on point, near perfect pairs ref age & location. My favorite pair was the Howell Mountain and Rust Ridge Vineyard. I seemed to favor northern locations and/or higher up in the hills as the second favorite pair was the Dry Creek pairing.

1999 Turley Cellars Zinfandel Dogtown Family Vineyard, Lodi
1999 Rosenblum Cellars Russian River Valley “Alegria Vineyard”

1999 Turley Cellars Zinfandel Duarte, Contra Costa County
1999 Rosenblum Cellars Contra Costa County “Carla’s Vineyard”

1999 Turley Cellars Zinfandel Grist Vineyard, Dru Creek Valley
1999 Rosenblum Cellars Dry Creek Valley “Rockpile Road Vineyard”

1999 Turley Cellars Zinfandel Pringle Family Vineyard, Howell Mountain
2000 Rosenblum Cellars Napa Valley “Rust Ridge Vineyard”

1999 Turley Cellars Zinfandel Hayne Family Vineyard, Napa
1999 Rosenblum Cellars Napa Valley “George Hendry Vineyard, Reserve”

Dinner wines, Grgich Fume Blanc 1993 samples were showing a bit more aged character than previous samples we have tasted. Bottle variation. Still enjoyable and fit for the appetizers. With the mains we had a Grgich Napa Cab 2002 Magnum. Great California Cab leaning towards old-world style. I just love when the frame and structure of a wine comes together with the fruit side of things. Savory and classic with ripe fruit. What’s not to like.

Digestive wine 1998 Sine Qua Non Mr K Vin de Paille Semillon was deep sweet raisiny wine with curious beer malt notes.

[Otto_Forsberg]

I had a tasting report on that one as well!

TN: The great 1999 Turley vs. Rosenblum Zingagement!

An acquaintance of mine had bought a bunch of 1999 Turley single-vineyard Zinfandels back in the day and was wondering what could be a proper setting to drink them at one go. Another wino friend managed to come up with a solution: he knew a good source of old Rosenblum single-vineyards, so he asked which Turleys this one guy had and purchased a bunch of Rosenblum Zinfandels that would be as close match as possible to the Turleys. Ultimately we had a 5 vs 5 half-blind tasting of Turley and Rose…