WTN: Weekend Wines (Bordeaux, Caringnan, Zin)

Interesting wine weekend!

2006 Lioco "Indica" Red Wine. Mendocino County. Caringnan (sp?) and Petit Sirah. This was very nice with dry rub ribs and smoked brisket! Black in color, with pronounced black plum and anise flavors with a delicious undercurrent of herbs. One of the "herbiest" California wines I've tried! I liked this better than Tom Hill did! 91 points!

2006 Ggrich Hills Zinfandel Napa Valley beautiful Napa Zinfandel, from near Calistoga. Does not show the 14.8% nominbal ABV at all. Instead, we got a medium bodied wine with sweet raspberry fruit, earth, and savory/herbal notes. This was my favorite wine at a winery visit the other week, and it showed very nicely. Is it sacreligious to say that I generally like Napa Valley zins more than Dry Creek, Lodi, or even most Foothill wines? It's nice to have a zin that doesn't burn your throat or taste like cough syrup! 90 points+

2003 Ch. Pichon Contesse de Lalande. Decanted for three hours. May be infanticide, but I'm worried about my few 2003 European wines, so decided to take a risk. Not closed down or tannic in any way. But also, not all that interesting to me, frankly. I think it needed food? The problem here was not over-extraction or alcohol or excess fruit. If anything, the wine was rather THIN and slightly green. Somewhat simple raspberry fruit with an underpinning of green-ness and some herbaceousness coming through. A nice light and even perhaps elegant sipping wine? I prefered the 2004 Pontet Canet, despite the latter's ferocious tannic structure. 88 points

2007 Vellum Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Practically a barrel sample, I know, but a quite elegant and very drinkable wine-inaugeral vintage from a couple of young wine lovers. They seem to have nailed it....this was very elegant, with some sweet raspberry fruit (like the above), elegant mouth feel. No alcoholic burn. You could drink this with food very well. The winemaker feels the acidic structure will allow for some bottle age, although the tannic structure seems restrained?

That is probably a good general question: What is most important in ageability: acid, depth of fruit, or tannic structure? 88 points. Very nice.

That is probably a good general question: What is most important in ageability: acid, depth of fruit, or tannic structure?

A good question, and one that I haven't yet found the answer to, because a (red) wine needs all 3 to be balanced, and I feel that if the balance is right among those elements, then aging will take care of itself. Problems arise when one bumps out the other, for instance, when tannin is strong but it outlasts the fruit, you'll have a pretty hollow wine, or the fruit takes center stage, but there is nn structure to balance, then the wine will tend to age quickly and fall apart.

Thanks for sharing that note on the Lioco. I was curious how that tasted (never seeing it in my corner of the east coast) because the description sounded like something I would like (like a good-old California field blend, the kind that are hard to find these days).

Lioco is a project from people in the business from the restaurant and importing side dedicated to "terroir" based wines. They also produce a stunning Chardonnay which is pricey ($40) but almost worth it. Wine and Spirits magazine had a feature last year on "sommelier" wines with the hook being they are somewhat different than the usual California wines. Plus...they are 40-year old grapes

Here's a website link...I am now hooked! http://www.liocowine.com/overview.html

I am generally on a wine buying hiatus, but this was just so good!