WTN: Benched

[Jenise]

2007 Ridge East Bench Zinfandel

A neighbor invited us over for ribs last night so I took this Dry Creek Ridge along (undecanted). If you'd poured this for me blind, the initial prominence of blood and black pepper aromas would have had me thinking mourvedre and when that guess failed, I wouldn't have had a ready second choice. The palate was very different from the nose with blueberries and white grapefruit that tried to morph into black currant but never quite got there. Attractive and interesting throughout, but very unusual at this stage for zinfandel.

[David M. Bueker]

I am really struggling with the graepfruit.

Sounds like an interesting, if strange wine.

[Jenise]

The grapefruit was also somewhat similar to the passion fruit flavor that often occurs in California grenache. Day after, I struggled about which descriptor to use and finally decided they're both so weird in re a zinfandel that it didn't matter.