TN; 2009 Portteus Old Vine Zinfandel

2009 Portteus Old Vine Zinfandel - still in search of a suitable wine for the upcoming Pacific Northwest lunch/tasting I tried a bottle of this last night. Old enough that the fruit wasn't a giveaway that it was zinfandel, it drank reasonably well but not up to the mark for the next tasting. I had thought that zin from WA might be a bit hard to spot, although both WA ad BC are putting out quite a bit of zinfandel these days.The search goes on......

[Jenise]

Paul Portteus is a friend of mine. He makes wines that are above adequate from the geek perspective and exceptional QPR for people that are just getting into wine. Plus, he makes everything! That is, there's almost no grape he doesn't grow on his home vineyard, and he makes all the wines himself. There's no one else like him. This zin probably cost you no more than $10 back in the day. Paul's wines have more structure than the average $10-15 wine, but they're not meant for long term holds and I'm not surprised that this one's kaput.

That name brings back memories! I used to visit this winery when I first started to go the Washington wine regions. I think this was in the late 1990s, early 2000s. As Jenise mentioned, they always had a huge selection of things to taste and Paul Portteus was always pouring the wines. Some wines were better than others, and I think gravitated towards his cabernets. But once Red Mountain and Walla Walla wineries started multiplying, I stopped visiting the Yakima area.

[Jenise]

'86 was his first vintage, so you were there in the early days John. He was still learning and so were his vines. When Bob and I were out camping around the state, if we ran out of wine we could generally find a Portteus something-or-other in just about every gas station that sold wine out in the boonies, especially his red blends. The Bordeaux blend, called Rouge 66, was a perennial favorite for about $12.