Went 2 fer 5 last night:
1. SaucelitoCanyon Zin ArroyoGrandeVlly/SLOCnty (EB; 14.5%) ArroyoGrande 1994: Med.dark color w/ light bricking; fairly strong raspberry/Zin/spicy quite earthy light smokey/oak fairly attractive nose w/ good fruit remaining; bit tart/dried out/metallic fairly spicy/raspberry/Zin some earthy/loamy light smokey/oak some oldZin/cedary/complex flavor w/ ligt/drying tannins; very long fairly bright/raspberry/Zin/spicy/cinammon slightly tart rather smooth finish w/ light/drying tannins; still has plenty of bright raspberry/Zin fruit and not much oldZin/tired character but drying out a bit on the palate. $17.00
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2. RobertBialeVnyd Zin Aldo'sVnyd/NapaVlly (14.6%; 788 cs; Planted in 1937; U) Napa 1994: Med.dark color w/ little bricking; quite strong very spicy/blackberry/Zin/peppery light vanilla/smokey/oak slight cedary/pencilly/oldZin slight licorice/black cherry cola rather complex nose; slight tart strong very spicy/blackberry/Zin/raspberry slight earthy/dusty/OV raher cedary/pencilly/oldZin complex flavor w/ light gentle/drying tannins; very long some cedary/pencilly/oldZin/smokey/oak rather strong blackberry/Zin/very spicy complex finish w/ light gentle tannins; still has plenty of blackberry/Zin fruit and only a bit of the cedary/oldZin character; truly a pleasure to drink.
$23.00
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Two elderly ladies in the twilight of their yrs, but still a joy to sit down with and reminisce about their hot-chick yrs in this world.
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2. I, of course, followed Biale Zins from the very start, when I first tasted them at ZAP and was mightly impressed. I arranged a visit w/ Bob for my next trip out there. We met up at Aldo's home, overlooking his vnyd there on the North edge of Napa. I think Aldo was gone by then, but we walked the vnyd w/ Bob & his (then) marketing guy, BillBishop, who I knew from his days at CarnerosCreek. It was a very chilly/very foggy morning...not the best venue to be tasting big Zin out there on the deck overlooking the vnyd. But Bob's Mom (forget her name now) saved the day by serving a hot fritatta right off the stove to drive the morning chill away. Left a lot of good memories of Biale Zins in my mind.
Tom