Jun

5

Yesterday was darn near perfect as June afternoons go.  An old colleague and friend invited us to watch the San Francisco Giants take on the New York Mets at Pac Bell Park.  Our car’s thermometer read 66 degrees as we drove over to the stadium, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. 

The only hiccup of the day was my decision to wear a corduroy jacket to the game in the expectation of a chilly fog’s rolling in – when my old colleague and his friend teased me for being overdressed, I said “You just wait.”  Well, I was wrong… but my embarrassment was pretty much the only downside to an otherwise ideal Wednesday afternoon of watching baseball and enjoying fresh air and California sunshine.

bella-big-river-05.jpgOur bliss even continued into the night, which was when we decided to open up our bottle of Bella Winery’s Big River Ranch Zinfandel 2005, a monster of a good wine made from grapes grown on 110-year-old vines.  Now, some of you out there may be thinking, gee, $36 is a lot of money for Zinfandel.  Well, it is in our minds, too.  Fortunately, the Bella Zinfandel not only lived up to our already high expectations, but it obliterated them.

You only need to get a whiff of the stunning nose of eucalyptus and berries to know what we mean.  In the mouth, it went from dark berry to plum to black pepper, and after swallowing, the finish just hung around… and around… and around.  As for its structure, we couldn’t expect anything better in a Zin.  Bella just nailed this one all around!

Where to get it: Bella is a teensy winery located in the heart of the Dry Creek Valley, a region famous for Zinfandel.  To buy Bella’s wines, you can order them directly from Bella’s online store or visit the tasting room in person (we’ve been there – it’s gorgeous).  Just note that Bella’s production is limited, and even if you’re unable to snag a bottle of the wine discussed above, we’re quite sure you’ll enjoy any of the winery’s other Zins.

   

Apr

8

What a week we’re having over here.  I attended a trade-only tasting in Los Gatos organized by the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association and had the opportunity to sample some truly glorious wines, the most notable of which were Burgundian-style Pinots, Chardonnays, and — though I’m not usually a fan — a fabulous Barbera.  More on those later.

For now, though, we thought it appropriate to lay the groundwork for the warmer months ahead, when barbecues across the nation will fire up to cook foods in need of a wine companion, by reviewing a nicely priced Zinfandel. 

We bought our bottle of Cline Zinfandel directly from Cline’s tasting room — it was there that our pourer, a lovely woman who had relocated from Arizona to work in the California wine industry, first gave us the idea of naming our Tuesday posts ”Weekday Wines.”  Weekday wines were those on the front side of the menu costing $20 and less, and weekend wines made up the rest on the back side.

Interestingly, we ended up purchasing the cheapest bottle of everything on offer, and tasting it again the other night validated our choice.  Our bottle tasted of raisins and plums, with black pepper present on the finish — it wasn’t really a complex wine, but it had enough acid to counterbalance the high alcohol content, and the flavors were quite pleasing to our palates. 

Conclusion?  A perfect wine to buy in bulk for a barbecue.  Mission accomplished!

Jan

22

This past year I came up with the project of bringing a list of some of the best bargain bottles of 2007 - about 80 bottles long - to wine merchants to ask if they had anything in stock. 

It was through this effort that I managed to find the wine for which this posting is named: 2005 Turley Zinfandel Juvenile.  Going through my list with the manager of a local wine shop, it seemed that we were headed for a lost cause until he came to this bottle, which he remembered he’d had in his store-room for six months but never had the chance to put out on the shelf.  Success!  

While I can assure you that it is still available for purchase, you may no longer be able to buy it for the $22 that it sold for back in November due to declining availability.  In fact, on one site I saw it retailing at $40.

Still, if you do end up tracking down this wine, you’ll be tasting one of our favorite Zinfandels from last year.  Even beginning with the nose, you know you’re in for something good: I picked up scents of liquorice, dark red fruit and pepper.   On the taste, I found a lighter-than-usual body relative to the normally heavy Zinfandel from Central California, which - due to ripening by the hot climate - can be a meal in and of itself.  My favorite quality of all: the abundance of pepperiness and spice, which shines through especially on the finish, that is so typical of this varietal. 

High marks for this one, even at $40. 

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