WTN: Ten Zins

[Jenise]

Short impressions (took no notes at the time) from our neighborhood wine tasting Friday night.


Self pour wines, not blind:

2005 Renwood Old Vines: I diss Renwood all the time but this wine was very good, complex and structured without the red licorice candy thing that seems to make all Renwood wines taste the same regardless of grape. $13

2007 Rancho Zabaco "Heritage": Heritage schmeritage. Compared to the Renwood this wine is like orange juice from concentrate vs. fresh squeezed. $11

2007 De Loach Sonoma: Supposedly DeLoach is "back". Well, this one doesn't come nearly far enough. $8

2007 Starfire, Lodi: Bright fruit that goes pow in the mouth, but nothing happens after that. No depth at all. $10


The Blind Tasting: Unusual for our group, no landslides this night. The first place wine got 65 points and the last got 15, with the second through fifth place wines all netting around 40.

2007 Sobon 'Cougar Hill': Raspberry and spice, with something that made me think of thistles. Doesn't have the power of the usual Sobon Cougar Hills, but it had that essential Amador thing as I guessed this to be this wine. Group 5th place. $18

2006 Klinker Brick Old Vines, Lodi: zinberry buried under charred wood, very smokey and toasted and therefore my last place wine, but the group loved it into 2nd place. Yuck. $21

2007 Ridge "East Bench", Dry Creek Valley: black currant and spicey, brambly zinberry with a perfumed nose and claret-like structure. Should age beautifully. My 1st place wine, group 3rd. $21 (Garagiste price, though I believe it would retail elsewhere for more--in the same offer they had the 07 Geyserville for just $23.)

2004 Chase Family Cellars 'Hayne Vineyard': good spicey nose but short midpalate with a sharp black coffee thing on the finish, the driest of all the wines. Both the group and I gave it last place. $22 on a distributor close out, was $40.

2007 Turley Old Vines: bluest color. dense and ripe with overt black raspberry old vine flavors, good power and concentration. Group 4th, my 3rd. $25.

2006 Mazzocco, Sonoma: dark and opaque appearance. Huge body, blackberry and boysenberry fruit, plush and yet tangy and elegant. I kind of wanted to hate it but I couldn't help but loving it and ultimately gave it 2nd place where the group happily voted it into first. Killer juice for $18.

"Killer juice..."?

[David M. Bueker]

Jenise is watching a lot of CSI.

What was price limit on the Zins? It seems like they could have had a better selection of wines but they would have had to pay more per bottle.

De Loach is a new outfit that's preaching "organic" and such stuff. They bought the name and the old Chard vineyard and tasting room, and I don't know what all else, out of the bankruptcy.
My impression, when I visited, was of a lot of earnestness and not a whole lot of skills.

Cecil De Loach is now up Olivet Road a bit, pretty much across from Pellegrini, and his label is "Hook & Ladder". I find it hard to imagine how he could have got the money to go broke making wine as a San Francisco fireman. Or maybe it's all too easy to imagine.

John

[Jenise]

What was price limit on the Zins? It seems like they could have had a better selection of wines but they would have had to pay more per bottle.

The limit isn't price so much as what's available in our market. Then there's the group--50-60 people each time, most of whom are novices when it comes to wine tasting. And then there's the event itself: few remember the self-pour wines so we put out 12 quaffers in the $12 and under range. For the blind tasting portion, we spend more but again, we're limited by what's available. Sure, we could order in from California, but the truth is that people want to taste wines they can go out and buy tomorrow.

What was price limit on the Zins? It seems like they could have had a better selection of wines but they would have had to pay more per bottle.

The limit isn't price so much as what's available in our market. Then there's the group--50-60 people each time, most of whom are novices when it comes to wine tasting. And then there's the event itself: few remember the self-pour wines so we put out 12 quaffers in the $12 and under range. For the blind tasting portion, we spend more but again, we're limited by what's available. Sure, we could order in from California, but the truth is that people want to taste wines they can go out and buy tomorrow.

That explains it. Who is in charge of a tasting for 50 or 60 people. Even handling that many wine geeks seems to me would be like herding cats. Bravo to the coordinator.

[Jenise]

That explains it. Who is in charge of a tasting for 50 or 60 people. Even handling that many wine geeks seems to me would be like herding cats. Bravo to the coordinator.

That would be me and my good friend Jim Macmillan. He started the group before I moved here, but back then there were only 9-12 people at each tasting. Now it's huge, and we fill the Clubhouse to capacity each month. I do most of the wine selection and am always trying to find that sweet spot between serving the group the wines they'll enjoy the most while exposing the more novice among them to wines they might have thought too risky or too expensive to buy without encouragement. Mostly, it's just a fine night out.

That explains it. Who is in charge of a tasting for 50 or 60 people. Even handling that many wine geeks seems to me would be like herding cats. Bravo to the coordinator.

That would be me and my good friend Jim Macmillan. He started the group before I moved here, but back then there were only 9-12 people at each tasting. Now it's huge, and we fill the Clubhouse to capacity each month. I do most of the wine selection and am always trying to find that sweet spot between serving the group the wines they'll enjoy the most while exposing the more novice among them to wines they might have thought too risky or too expensive to buy without encouragement. Mostly, it's just a fine night out.

I belong to a wine group that meets once a month, usually a restaurant, country club, etc. We have someone from a winery talk about the wines we are drinking that evening. To be totally honest it just gives 40 guys an excuse to go out without their wifes to drink and eat.
My wife with a sarcastic tone in her voice refers to them as "the good old boys, or the wine boys". How can I refute that? It"s the truth!