Open Mike:`04 Ravenswood Lodi Zinfandel.

A WTN Riddle: it smells like whisky, tastes like whisky, burns like whisky and acts like whisky. What is it? Seghesio Old Vines Zinfandel 2003!

The nose is very alcoholic, very typical and anonymous over-ripe stewed fruit that is sickeningly sweet. The palate is very berryish, very alcoholic (15,3% abv ) and it burns like whisky when swallowed. Abysmally bad shite. And it costs 33€ here! I've never been so badly ripped off. Utterly unbalanced, very simple - all it has is over-ripe fruit.

I added a drop of water to it (like I do with whiskies) and it improved dramatically. It was still a boring wine with no dimensions, but at least the alcoholic burn was somewhat diminished.

-O-(hoping it would at least have tasted of good whisky instead of a cheap and crappy blended one)

A WTN Riddle: it smells like whisky, tastes like whisky, burns like whisky and acts like whisky. What is it? Seghesio Old Vines Zinfandel 2003!

The nose is very alcoholic, very typical and anonymous over-ripe stewed fruit that is sickeningly sweet. The palate is very berryish, very alcoholic (15,3% abv ) and it burns like whisky when swallowed. Abysmally bad shite. And it costs 33€ here! I've never been so badly ripped off. Utterly unbalanced, very simple - all it has is over-ripe fruit.

I added a drop of water to it (like I do with whiskies) and it improved dramatically. It was still a boring wine with no dimensions, but at least the alcoholic burn was somewhat diminished.

-O-(hoping it would at least have tasted of good whisky instead of a cheap and crappy blended one)

Otto,
I've never been a fan of the Seghesio OV Zinfandel and my recollection of the 2003 that I tasted maybe 2 years ago mirrors your note. Not a nice wine and over priced locally at ~$26. FWIW,
I much prefer their regular Somoma Zin which retails for about $10 less. Not a great wine, but decent if just a bit ripe and blowsy.
If someone recommended this OV to you, I might suggest you track them down and kick the shite out of them.