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.
Our 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.
Comments
Blogroll
- AlaWine
- AlaWine Blog Rankings
- Appellation America
- Bi-Rite
- Bottlenotes
- Calwineries
- Cellar Tracker
- Chambers Street Wines
- Cork’d
- Dombeya Wines Blog
- eBacchus
- Hip Tastes Blog
- In Wine Country
- IntoWine
- Israel Wine Company
- K&L Wines
- Mill Valley Market
- Moore Brothers Wines
- Must Love Wine
- Nirvino
- NY Times’ “The Pour”
- Pasanella and Son, Vintners
- Pinot Report
- Plumpjack Wines
- Snooth
- The Wine Doctor
- Tip The Bottle
- Tribeca Wine Merchants
- Union Square Wines
- Vinfolio
- Vinography
- Vintage Berkeley
- Weekly Wine Online
- Wine Enthusiast
- Wine Geeks
- Wine Library TV
- Wine Log
- Wine Review Online
- Wine Spectator
- Wine-Searcher
- WineMad
- WineZap