Tuesday Quick Sip – 2006 Four Vines “Biker” Zinfandel

2006 Four Vines “Biker” Zinfandel

Wine Information –

Appellation: Paso Robles, California

Vineyards: Dusi, Preston

Grapes: 99% Zinfandel, 1% Mourvedre

Alcohol: 15%

Price: $20 – $25

My Tasting Notes –

Nose: Fig, cocoa, prune, black currant, leather

Taste: boysenberry, mocha java, fig, date, blueberry jam, cedar box

Mouthfeel: full body, silky mid palate, spicy towards the finish

Finish: loaded with fruit, dry and leathery

This is a rockin’ central coast Zin, that doesn’t come across to jammy or overly extracted. The alcohol is high at 15% but doesn’t seem so, the wine isn’t “hot” at all. I was impressed by the layers of flavors on the palate, that kept on evolving as the bottle was open. If you’re looking for a bold, spicy full-flaovred zin, give this one a whirl.

Cheers!

Wine Blogging Wednesday #60 – “I have Zinned”

This month, Wine Blogging Wednesday created by Lenn Thompson of LENNDEVOURS, is in it’s 60^th edition and hosted by Megan at Wannabe Wino. Her theme this month is anything Zin, and pairing it with BBQ and or grilled meat. Well since I’m a vegetarian I couldn’t comply with the second part but I did the first and served it with a great pizza from my favorite local pizzeria Angelos. I thought it would be funny to choose a “white zin” but I didn’t and chose the 2006 Seghesio San Lorenzo Block 8 Zinfandel. I got this as one of my wine club shipments from Segehesio about a year ago.

From Seghesio on the history of the San Lorenzo Vineyard:

“Rachel Ann Passalacqua met Eugene “Pete” Seghesio when purchased her father’s Zinfandel grapes from the San Lorenzo vineyard in southernmost Alexander Valley. In 1956 the couple was married. Seghesio Farms now manages that same vineyard, purchased in 1896 by Rachel Ann’s grandfather for the sum of ten gold coins. At that time, the vineyard was already planted to and producing Zinfandel. Today, it represents our oldest plantings of Zinfandel.”

The information on the wine –

Appellation: Alexander Valley, Sonoma

Grapes: 100% Zinfandel

Fermentation: 11 day punchdown in 6 Ton open top fermenters

Oak program: 12 months in French oak, 25% was new

Alcohol: 15.4%

Price: $35

My Tasting Notes –

Nose: brown sugar, coffee grounds, fig, raisin and molasses

Taste: plum, fig, blackberry, baking spices, thyme

Mouthfeel: full body, round, dry and spicy

Finish: long and fruity with hints of cocoa

Two words to describe this would be BIG and RICH, not to be confused with the country music band of the same name. Although as big as it was and with the 15.4% ABV it was not out of balance in any way and wasn’t over the top but brimming at the edges. The nose was as if I had walked into a coffee shop that was baking coffee cake while eating some dried figs. Amazing! Each sip, completely wrapped my tongue in layers of dark fruit, and hints of thyme. And I know there aren’t any taste receptors on the bottom of my tongue but it seemed as though I could really taste it from the bottom up. Maybe it was dripping all the way through my tongue. Gross thought, but this was killer! Definitely could have gone with some smoked baby back ribs, but it rode nicely with my pizza!!

Cheers to another WBW!

Tuesday Quick Sip – 2005 Renwood Old Vine Zinfandel

Wine Information

Vineyards – Amador county appellation; average age of 45 year old head pruned vines

Grape – 100% Zinfandel

Aging- 15 months in oak; 23% new American Oak, 77% 2-3 year old French and American Oak

Price – $15

My Tasting Notes

Nose – dried cherries, chocolate, blackberry, raisin

Taste – raspberry puree, blackberry, fig, cherry, nutmeg

Mouthfeel – medium to full body, spicy with dry dusty tannins

Finish – long and spicy with a hint of espresso at the end

The 2005 Renwood Old Vine Zinfandel is a great expression of what Zinfandel in this price range can be. For $15 it shows lots of dark fruit and “raisiny” goodness without being overly jammy or extracted. Great spiciness through the whole palate and firm tannic structure help balance out the fruitiness of the wine. Although a great value Zin, it may be a bit much for an everyday drinker but would great with pizza, barbecue, or grilled foods.

Cheers!

Hendry’s little brother – 2006 HRW Zinfandel

“HRW” is a fairly new line of wines from Hendry that offers some value to their brand, priced at around half of what the big brother costs. The wines are blends of the leftover juice from their single block wines, that for whatever reason wasn’t “good enough”. The 2006 HRW Zinfandel ( $18 ) is a blend of juice from their Block 7&22 and the Block 28 Zinfandel. The wine was fermented in stainless steel tanks and aged in French Oak for 12 months. Approximately ten percent of the oak was new with the remaining being one, two and three year old Zinfandel barrels.

My Tasting Notes –

Nose – prune, plum, blackberry, smoke

Taste – black cherry, raisin, plum and cocoa

Mouthfeel – medium to full body, dusty tannins and spicey

Finish – quite long with dusty dry tannins and dark fruit flavors

We drank this with some grilled food and redskin potato salad during this unseasonably warm weather Richmond was having this weekend. The pairing worked out well with the smoky notes really coming out with the smokiness of the grilled food. I really enjoy the Hendry “Zins” but have a hard time popping a $30-$40 bottle of wine on a daily basis or to have at a cookout. The HRW line gives you the quality you expect from Hendry with slightly less complexity, in a rocking Napa Zin.

Cheers!

Quick Sip – 2005 MonteVina Terra d’ Oro Zinfandel

I usually don’t buy wines from Sam’s Club, I like to give my wine business to the local shops around town versus the big guys who don’t “need” my business. But the other day I picked this up for the fun of it.

Wine Background

Grapes – 100% Zinfandel

Vineyards – Amador County

Oak program – Each lot was fermented separately, then pressed into American and French small oak barrels, 38% of which was new oak. The individual lots aged for fifteen months before being blended for bottling

Price – $15 – $18

My Tasting Notes

Color – Crimson

Nose – cherry, rhubarb, blackberry

Taste – black currant, spice, raspberry, cedar and cola

Mouthfeel – smooth and lush, with round medium body and dry elegant tannins

Finish – medium in length and fruity

We had this with some awesome veggie pizza from Angelo’s in Midlothian. It was a great pizza wine, lots of layered fruit and lush round mouthfeel. The 2005 MonteVina Terra d’ Oro Zinfandel was very fun, good structured Zin with a splash of acidity that wasn’t overly extracted or to “big” for its britches. It’s got a lot of distribution so you should be able to find it just about anywhere.

Cheers!

Quick Sip – 2005 Alderbrook Confluence

We picked up the 2005 Alderbrook Confluence at Alderbrook during our visit in November. Typically Confluence is only poured for wine club members but the tasting room associate hooked us up.

Grape Varieties – 60% Syrah, 40% Zinfandel

Aging – 15 months in French Oak (30% new)

Alcohol – 14.8%

Price – $30

My Tasting Notes –

Nose – prune, fig and espresso

Taste – boysenberry, prune, olive and cola

Mouthfeel – good acid, leathery tannins, slightly flat in the middle

Finish – long and dry with a very “clean” finish, red fruit flavors linger on the palate

A very nice wine that had a lot of the classic Zinfandel flavors, and the higher than average alcohol was not out of balance. Surprisingly it was a little watery and flat in the middle but up front it was full of rich dark fruit and nice espresso flavors. The back end was firm and griping, evidence of the predominant Syrah component, giving a long dry finish.

Although a bit pricey, it was quite good and comparable to other big name Zinfandels at similar price points.

Cheers!

Tasting in the shipyard – A visit to Rosenblum Cellars

Driving towards the ship yards on the island of Alameda across the bay from San Francisco isn’t a typical venue in which to find a winery. Our GPS assured us that we are in the right spot, as we round the corner and see our destination. Rosenblum Cellars originally started in a small building on the streets of San Fran and after moving to their current location in 1987, is now one of 6 wineries producing and bottling wine in Alameda.  Rosenblum built a name for themselves making single vineyard Zinfandels, sourced from all over California. Committed to quality, Kent Rosenblum keeps his eye on each of the vineyards they source from in order to produce a product that has garnered countless accolades.  

Farley and Megan

I was really excited to try the wines because we don’t get much of the single vineyard ones distributed here in Richmond, and I never see any of the white wines.  Lucky for me, the tasting room manager at the Alameda location is fellow blogger and friend Farley who offered to give the wife and I tasting and tour of the facility.  What a great way to start our California vacation, tasting and geeking out about wine an hour after our plane landed

 

The Whites

 

2006 Fess Parker Rousanne – rich in honey and pear juice, floral notes and fairly viscous – yum

2007 Kathy’s Cuvee Viognier – tons of apricot and peach on the nose, good combo of acidity and rich exotic mouthfeel, nice nectarine finish – double yum

 

The Reds

 

2005 Richard Sauret Zinfandel – raisin, fig, chocolate and black currant

2006 Kontrabecki Zinfandel – blueberry, blackberry with spicy black berry and dry finish, fairly big tannins – very nice structured Zin

2005 Harris Kratka  Zinfandel – more red fruit with red currant jam notes, touches of floral and a spicy leathery finish

 

At this point Farley thought it would be a good time to fill up our glass and explore the facility, and do some barrel sampling before we finished up on the tasting menu.  The barrel rooms were a flurry of activity, getting ready for their open house event that was coming up that weekend. Over here on your right are some barrels and over to your left are some more barrels.  After peaking in on the bottling line that was finishing up bottling of the new vintage of the chocolate dessert wine Desiree, we started our barrel sampling.

 

Barrel Samples

 

Richard Rhodes Carignane (sorry did jot down the vintage) – cherry, red currant tomato and all spice.

2007 Harris Kratka Zinfandel – lots of chocolate, raspberry and toasty oak at the finish

2007 Patio Vineyards Mourvedre – espresso, chocolate and black raspberry

2007 England Shaw Syrah – butter cream, smoke, black currant and spice, very nice

 

The Reds Continued

 

2005 England Shaw Syrah – cooked fruit, cooked veggies and a hint of funk, tasted a bit off

2006 Rominger Syrah – hint of banana, chocolate liquer, blackberry and green bean, slight leathery aromas

2006 Rockpile Syrah – coffee, chocolate, cranberry sauce, black currant jam, green pepper

Desiree – chocolate and vanilla extract goodness

 

 

Albeit an unusual location for a winery, the wines are extremely good and I wish we could get more of the small lot ones here in VA. For lovers of California Zin and new world style Rhone varietals this is a must stop for you, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.  In addition to the Alameda tasting room, there is also a tasting room on the square in Healdsburg.

 

Thanks again to Farley for being a great host and giving us the VIP treatment, we had a great time, as I said what a perfect way to start a vacation.

 

Cheers!

 

Alameda Tasting Room

Open daily 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
2900 Main Street in Alameda
Minutes from San Francisco
Phone: 510-865-7007
Fax: 510-865-9225

 

Healdsburg Tasting Room

Open Daily 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
250 Center Street
Healdsburg, CA  95448
Phone: 707-431-1169
Fax: 707-431-0508