WTN: Hop Kiln Zinfandel “Primitivo”1996

WTN: Hop Kiln Zinfandel “Primitivo”1996, 14.1% abv, $22. I know, “Can Zin age?” is last year’s topic, but this is a belated yes vote. I knew from previous bottles that there would be a lot of sediment, so we decanted it about an hour before mealtime. Even decanting was a pleasure! I don’t expect much on the nose from zin, but this one yielded a nice resinous aroma of pinon pine and—rare in zin—a little tobacco. On the tongue, it was sappy and chocolate with some lingering bitterness (which I liked). “Sappy” sounds like a young wine, and this shows no signs of senescence. One concession to age, though, is good: my tasting log of the first bottle back in ’99 complained about excessive oak. Oak is completely integrated. I look forward to opening the last 4 bottles in years to come.

Oh yeah, the food: Lamb chops rubbed with smoked paprika, polenta and kale. We add a pinch of cayenne to kale and while I don’t expect zinfandel to be especially good with greens, this one matched surprisingly well. Life is good!

WTN: Hop Kiln Zinfandel “Primitivo”1996, 14.1% abv, $22. I know, “Can Zin age?” is last year’s topic, but this is a belated yes vote. I knew from previous bottles that there would be a lot of sediment, so we decanted it about an hour before mealtime. Even decanting was a pleasure! I don’t expect much on the nose from zin, but this one yielded a nice resinous aroma of pinon pine and—rare in zin—a little tobacco. On the tongue, it was sappy and chocolate with some lingering bitterness (which I liked). “Sappy” sounds like a young wine, and this shows no signs of senescence. One concession to age, though, is good: my tasting log of the first bottle back in ’99 complained about excessive oak. Oak is completely integrated. I look forward to opening the last 4 bottles in years to come.

So, Michael... was this wine labeled "Primitivo" w/ one of those TM thingeys in a circle behind it???

This wine, when they first started producing it back in the '80's, was pretty dynamite stuff. It was their top-of-the-line red.
But it was, in fact, from old-vine Zin, not real Primitivo (which is DNA-identical to Zin, but not identical in the vnyd...actually a clone of Zin). They got the clever idea to trademark the name "Primitivo". The Feds were clueless (hard to believe it...isn't it??) and granted them the trademark. But you can not trademark a grape variety name unless you made up that name. I was under the understanding that the trademark had been rescended.
At one time, under MartyGriffen, HopKiln made some pretty amazing wines. The MartyGriffen's BigRed, from a lot of old-vine stuff, was a killer wine. And a botrytis white (JR?) that was killer. Then they kind of sunk into oblivion. Not had anything from HopKiln in many a year.
Tom

You nailed it--upon inspection of the now-drained bottle, I see the tiny R-in-a-circle "thingey" after "Primativo." Well, whatever the marketing chutzpah, the wine is a great example of zinfandel in about the middle of the gap between oaky Green & Red and Ridge.

Unfortunately times have changed, Marty sold Hop Kiln and the fun atmosphere in the barnlike tasting room no longer exists..Tasted there in October and found the wines underwhelming ..what a shame..I remember buying Marty's Big Red by the case