WTN: Two Zins...(short/boring)

Tried these two last night w/ my tofu tacos:
1. TraderJoe's Rendition AlexVlly Zin (14.5%) C&B by FiveGoldHands/Geyserville; NickGoldschmidt 2007: Very dark color; pleasant blackberry/Zin some Am.oak/vanilla/pencilly bit simple nose; soft/fat pleasant blackberry/Zin light Am.oak/vanilla slightly sour flavor; med.short pleasant/simple Zin/blackberry light Am.oak/pencilly finish w/ light tannins; a pleasant stand-up Zin a bit on the simple side; very fairly priced at $9.00
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2. Ridge Calif Zin Nervo (7% PS; SonomaCnty; 14.6%; Bttld: Mar'08; Drk: 1/08-1/12-1/13: EB) 2006: Very dark color; some licorice/blackberry/Zin some earthy/dusty/old vines light vanilla/oak/pungent/toasty/DraperPerfume bit tight/closed nose; soft somewhat hard/tannic/tight slight licorice/pungent some dusty/OV fairly strong blackberry/Zin/light spicy some vanilla/oak/pencilly/DP flavor; med.long rather tight/hard/tannic some blackberry/dusty/OV/Zin light pungent/vanilla/oak finish w/ ample tannins; not a lot of fruit and rather hard/tannic/tight/closed on the palate; needs some age. $28.00
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And a wee BP:
1. Ridge: This Nervo was the latest Ridge ATP release. Like many Ridge ATP Zins on release; it was terribly underwhelming. Not a lot of fruit and pretty hard/tight on the palate. I suspect it will be a whole lot better with a few yrs of age, as those ATP releases are wont to do; but it doesn't offer a great deal of pleasure right now.
The Ridge ATP program continues to puzzle me. They have released most of their '07 Zins (which are, across the board, dynamite). And then here comes this '06 Zin dribbling out the pipeline. Maybe it was just so hard & tight upon bottling that they thought it needed some bottle age? Almost 2 yrs in btl and it's still a pretty tight & unyielding wine. Maybe, like some of those ATP releases, it'll rise up and bite me on the arse a few yrs down the road? We shall see.
Tom

[David M. Bueker]

A hard and fruitless zin - sounds like a dead end to me.

A hard and fruitless zin - sounds like a dead end to me.

Sometimes you just gotta believe, David. Believe that Draper & Company know what they're doing. Some of these ATP wines that
are underwhelming at release turn into something really good. This one is just not particularly good drinking...right now.
Tom

Tom,

I know that you know that I'm a huge Ridge fan (I have more Ridge wines in my cellar than any other producer) so this isn't a shot at Ridge but I wonder if they'd ever make a wine all the way to the end and (leave it alone for two years) then declare that they just can't sell this becuase it isn't what they intended. My guess would be "no" so the wine ends up being an ATP wine. Is that fair or unfair?

Tom,
I know that you know that I'm a huge Ridge fan (I have more Ridge wines in my cellar than any other producer) so this isn't a shot at Ridge but I wonder if they'd ever make a wine all the way to the end and (leave it alone for two years) then declare that they just can't sell this becuase it isn't what they intended. My guess would be "no" so the wine ends up being an ATP wine. Is that fair or unfair?

Sorta doubt it, Tom. Draper et al no a bit about winemaking & they make the selections for ATP or to bulk out well before it's bttld & labeled
is my guess. This Nervo was bttld & labeled almost 2 yrs ago and is just now showing up in the ATP release, which is unusually late. I would guess they
made the decision to finally release it back in the April/May time frame after tasting it & other alternatives and finally decided to go with it.
It is, at this point, a lesser ATP release. But, as I said, it may yet evolve into something pretty good. Who knows?
Tom

Tom,
Thanks for the reply!