TN ESJ Zin and comfy slippers

Some of you may recall my ecstatic response to ESJ Zin in years past. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6848&hilit=Bless+me+Father+for+I+have+Zinned#p54192

Well, those cherished bottles have been relished, but kept perhaps a bit too long. The last I had ...(play "Taps" here)..had gone on to the Zin graveyard. Tonight, I opened another, expecting the same..a dead soldier. Well, he wasn't dead, but certainly not vibrant. My ESJ 2001 Peay Vineyard Zin had become comfy slippers. Nothing offputting on the nose or palate..nothing exciting, either. Some dark fruit valiantly tried to surface to the nose and created a comforting black fruit quilt on the palate. I am not dismayed, but comforted that my old lover still seduces me in a comforting way. Sometimes our oldest friends are our best.

Cheers!
JB

[David M. Bueker]

Seems like it should have been sipped around the holidays - tidings of comfort and joy.

I'll put my 2001 Peay Syrah in the drinking queue.

Well, those cherished bottles have been relished, but kept perhaps a bit too long. The last I had ...(play "Taps" here)..had gone on to the Zin graveyard. Tonight, I opened another, expecting the same..a dead soldier. Well, he wasn't dead, but certainly not vibrant. My ESJ 2001 Peay Vineyard Zin had become comfy slippers. Nothing offputting on the nose or palate..nothing exciting, either. Some dark fruit valiantly tried to surface to the nose and created a comforting black fruit quilt on the palate. I am not dismayed, but comforted that my old lover still seduces me in a comforting way. Sometimes our oldest friends are our best.
Cheers!
JB

Yup...if'n you're talkin' SteveEdmunds...got that one right, Julia!!

I'd forgotten about this wine. I'd forgotten they had Zin at Peay. Wonder if they're still there? Pretty cold place to grow Zin. Steve??
Tom

Nick planted Zinfandel there with the idea that he might be able to get fruit that wouldn't raisin, an idea with which I concurred enthusiastically. But the California Fall season almost guarantees raisins in Zin, even where they are. They took the vines out after '02.

Hi Steve, was Nick your only source for Zin, do you plan to produce another one? (I don’t see Zins offered on your website under your wine listing or are you just going to concentrate on “Rhone varietals”. It would be interesting to see how Zin “reacts” to one of your “concrete monsters”).

Salute

Victor, the last Zinfandel I produced was the one Julia posted about. I made quite a number of them over the years, but kept having problems with supply, and, frankly, the weird, uneven, prone-to-raisining tendencies of Zinfandel nearly always left me wishing for at least a slightly different outcome. If I were to take it up again, it would probably be in the form of Primitivo, because of its looser clusters, more even ripening, much less tendency to raisin, and so on. The problem, if there is one, is that, for too many people: "it doesn't taste like Zinfandel!" I think it's nicely suited to concrete, and, if I had the opportunity to make a Primitivo that way I'd be glad to give it my best shot.

Go for it! I’ll swap you a bottle of Barbera or Zin (California grown made in NY) for a bottle of Primitivo.

Salute

You just might have to sweeten the pot a little my friend; changing horses in mid-stream is a pretty big deal for old-timers such as myself!