Nomadic Wines

Inaugural tasting with unnamed tasting group - November 19

So the new group got together at Dustin and Kelly's place for a Sunday afternoon bbq and zinfandel tasting. The food was excellent - Dustin was masterful on the bbq and the white bean-truffle dip was killer. The wine tasting was more casual -- we started with a couple white wines, a Chappelet Chenin Blanc and a Sauvignon Blanc that I didn't check out.

The stated theme was zinfandels, but interestingly, almost all of the wines were blends. I.e. they were technically zinfandels because they had more than 75% zin, but they had other characteristics based on the blended varietals.

My favorite wine was the Rafanello Zin, which seemed to be a popular choice. The Acorn also got a couple votes - it seemed to lack the strong peppery aspect that can really dominate zinfandels. Some wines were clearly young and could benefit from time. The Syrah was also well-liked... it would have been interesting to see if people could pick it out as non-zinfandel. Probably not, as most wines were blends anyway.

I am looking forward to tasting more with this group. It seems like everyone enjoyed the tasting and would be down for more organization at some events. Thanks to everyone.

• 2003 C.G. Di Arie Zinfandel - USA, California, Sierra Foothills, Shenandoah Valley
  Simple and pleasurable, though not much of a finish. Warm dark berries with good vanilla flavor. Simple, but worked because it didn't need food. By the way, this wines is from the inventor of "Cap'n Crunch."


• 2004 Acorn Zinfandel Heritage Vines Alegría Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley
  This wine is a field blend with 78% zinfandel, 10% petite sirah, and 10% alicante. The remaining 2% is a bunch of random varietals. It is pretty soft for a zinfandel with red briary fruit (wild cherries and raspberries). It also had some spiciness, but was pretty creamy in the middle.


• 2005 Orin Swift The Prisoner - USA, California, Napa Valley
  I just wasn't impressed by this wine - it is 48% zin, 26% cabernet sauvignon, 14% syrah, 10% petite sirah, and 2% charbono. It was sweet and confusing... lots of dark fruit and some smokiness, but unclear what direction they were trying to take it. Maybe its zinfandel characteristics would come out over time.


• 2004 Cakebread Cellars Zinfandel Red Hills - Lake County - USA, California, Napa Valley
  The palate of this wine was a little flat and its finish was tart and short. Some berry and chocolate aromas, but just not very impressive especially considering its price.


• 2004 A. Rafanelli Zinfandel - USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley
  This was the most complete wine of the tasting, in my opinion. The alcohol is in check, it is balanced, and it has a long life ahead of it. It is spicy, but peppery and cinammon-y. It has lots of blackberries too. I think it is very young and it will get better over the next 5 years.


• 2003 Ridge Geyserville - USA, California, Sonoma County
  Ready to drink immediately... I wonder if this Geyserville will age like past vintages. It had a raisin-like, floral nose with lots of red berries and acidity on the palate. There are definitely tannins in there for the aging, but this wasn't what I expected from a young Geyserville... I expected more structure and potentially more austerity.


• 2004 Linne Calodo The Outsider - USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
  The nose was surprisingly similar to the Ridge Geyserville... some raisiny, portlike aspects with bright red fruit and floral characteristics. The mouth feel wasn't as chewy as I expected, more pure red raspberry. Should age a few years, but not sure if it has the backbone of the Geyserville.


• 2003 Morgan Syrah Tierra Mar - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Lucia Highlands
  Very solid wine that offered a great counter-point to all of the zinfandels we drank. It had some of the same spiciness (pepper) but the fruit characteristics were more black/blue fruit instead of red fruit. Still ripe and modern, very fruit-forward... it would have been hard to pick out blind.

posted by nomadfromcincy @ 12:09 PM