So last week our neighborhood tasting was zinfandel. I bought eight wines altogether even though I could only serve six, hi-grading if you will to find the wines that would be crowd pleasers and provide interesting promotional appeal to 75 tasters. In several cases I had leftover wine to retaste over three days; I include the evolution in my notes. Tasters voted on their top 3 wines. The wines are served blind and I do the initial line-up (which essentially consists of making sure that Wine A isn't the biggest wine of the bunch) then have someone switch two so that I'm essentially tasting blind, too.
2014 Sobon Estate Zinfandel Old Vines Amador County
Medium bodied, bright and delightfully, typically Amador with the raisiny, Framboise-like red fruit, racy acidity and no obvious oak. Not a showboat, just a Euro-palate kind of I-can-drink-this-all-night kind of wine. Great with or without food. Kept it for myself instead of using it in the tasting.
2012 Steele Wines Zinfandel Century Old Vines Catfish Vineyard Clear Lake
Day One: minerally with brambly fruit and bright acidity. My 3rd place wine, Group 4th, 54 pts
Day Two: undrinkable American oak mess.
Day Three: somewhere between the two. Added remains to the vinegar pot.
2014 Trader Joe's Zinfandel Reserve Lot #71 Dry Creek Valley
If you only had $10 to spend on a bottle of wine, you couldn't do better than this. It's a nicely delineated, balanced zin with good body, varietal character and a sense of place. And this is what took the Sobon's place in the line-up. It did not make my top 3 but at 97 pts it was the group's 2nd place finisher, and it deserved that.*
2014 1000 Stories Zinfandel Bourbon Barrel Aged 1000 Stories Mendocino County
Sweet and easy with good spice, a crowd pleaser (though I'm not part of that crowd). The 15.4% alcohol really stood out among the other more temperate zinfandels and it was easily my last place wine. Third with the crowd though, 82 pts.
2014 Bedrock Wine Co. Zinfandel Old Vine California
Very dense old vine fruit with firm tannins that didn't relax, even three days later. Kept looking for that good place where it felt ready to drink but it never quite got there. It was nonetheless in my top three but as such predictably last place with the group, 31 pts.
NV Marietta Cellars Old Vine Red Lot Number 65 California
Robust fruit, a tad rustic but not jammy (as some past vintages have been). A field blend of about 75% zinfandel with petite sirah and carignane, I believe. At $13, pizza wine doesn't get any better than this. Group 5th, unfortunately, due to a corked bottle getting poured undetected, at 48 pts. It should have placed higher.
2014 Trentadue Winery Zinfandel La Storia Reserve Block 303 Alexander Valley
When a local retailer pitched this one to me, my initial reaction was "No way; I can't stand Trentadue wines." He explained that he felt the same way, but this one was different, plush and fruit, no jam. I needed something at the $20 price point, so I bit. Great decision: opulent and sexy. Fantastic concentrated dark fruit with true, brambly zin character and silky tannins. My 1st and group 1st at 109 points.
*So the next day Bob and I were in B'ham and stopped at TJ's for something else. While there, though, I wanted to pick up a bottle of this for someone who hadn't been able to attend the tasting. Shelf was empty. A clerk walked up, I pointed. "It's empty AGAIN?", he said. I've refilled it twice this morning already, and someone else was just here asking about it. I won't have any more until the new shipment comes in tonight. What's going ON?"
Considering that Trader Joe's is a 90 minute round trip adventure, this is a pleasant thing to learn about the influence created by my tastings. The local retailer another couple miles beyond who sold me the LaStoria got cleaned out too.