After 5 other Zins went down the drain, found one that was pretty good:
1. Fermentations Zin BenitoDusiVnyd/PasoRobles (13.9%) LeslieGainer & Alex Meline/Fermentations & More/SLO 1993: Very dark murky color w/ some browning; strong chocolaty/licorice/ripe PR jammy/blackberry/boysenberry/PR Zin some toasty/charred/oak/smokey rather complex nose; lightly tangy/metallic strong plummy/blackberry/boysenberry/PR Zin/jammy/chocolaty rather toasty/smokey/oak bit soft some complex flavor w/ light ripe tannins; somewhat soft bit tangy/metallic ripe/blackberry/boysenberry/PR jammy/Zin/chocolaty some toasty/smokey/oak slight dusty/OV complex finish w/ light soft tannins; clearly as seen better days but still has lots of PR Zin fruit and still clinging to life.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. PasoRobles used to (maybe still does?) have a Zin festival in the Spring. It would be a seminar or two, a grand tasting of Zins, and then many of the wineries would be open to pour some special/library Zins. One year, about '92/'93; Gary Eberle invited me out to be the "press rep" for the event. I came out a few days before to tour around & stay w/ Gary & Jeannie. At the time, MaryBaker (who used to post a lot when she lived in Paso) ran the Eberle tasting room, where I first met her. That day, their group of tasting room managers, mostly female, was having a lunch at TobyJames wnry and Mary invited me to join her for the event. I there met MaryGainer (forget which tasting room she ran) and had a Fermentations Zin that I liked quite a lot. This is one that I ordered at a later date. I was expecting it to be pretty shot, but it was not. Still had some life left.
Fermentations is a small wine & gormet shop in Cambria that's still in business. Don't know if Leslie is still involved or not.
Fermentations
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2. This Zin came from a box of Zins of the '93/'94 vintage stored in reasonable (not ideal 55F) conditions. All of the wines were stored upside/neck down. We, of course, "know" that you're to store wine over the long haul so as to keep the cork moist. I stood 6 of them upright and opened them about an hr later. In all cases of the 6, the cork was thoroughly saturated/soft/mushy and the corked crumbled in two when I used the AhSo on it. I'm finding that true of many of the btls I store upside down. The cork is very soft & crumbly. My data suggests the best way to store wine is standing upright. The corks are almost never dried out. Of course, this is not what the "experts" tell us and we should believe them. No use to let facts/data get in the way of what we "know" to be true.
Tom