We started with a Swan Trenton Estate PN '05. Dark color on opening, fresh aroma, and just what I had hoped for. A little edgy at first, but excellent dark fruit and total balance all the way through to a very long finish. After a couple of hours, some lunch and a lot of chatting, the wine had opened, with a more pronounced aroma and lost its edginess, but none of its fruit, which started to show several different flavors that I'm at a loss to describe - basically some stone fruit (slightly tart apricots?) plus the cherry and some blackberry/raspberry nuances. It had got longer and smoother in the finish. One of the best PN's it has been my pleasure to taste.
We interrupted the PN to let it develop a bit and I opened Swan Stellwagen Zinfandel '01. This is right up there in the Ridge Geyserville bracket, but instead of "Draper perfume" it has the "Rod Berglund complexity." Or something.
It was getting lighter in color than bottles I'd opened 4 or 5 years ago, and the color was moving from dark ruby to a light ruby with a tinge of garnet, but no rim clearing was apparent.
Zin all the way, with that layer of dust that comes with age. Some tannin (or maybe alcohol) evident on opening, but it disappeared in the back palate.
After enjoying a sip, we walked over to Canevari's deli and got some sandwiches for lunch, and brought them back. With the sandwiches, the tannic edge totally disappeared, as did a large part of the bottle of wine.
Fresh blackberry fruit with a little bit of tart cherry. I thought it ws better with our sandwiches than by iteslef. A true pleaasure to share.And it was a great pleasure to share good wine with people who I really enjoyed meeting in person.
I was also impressed how well structured the tannins were in this zin and how seamlessly it melded with the lunch. It showed no sign of fading through the afternoon.