WTN: Grgich Hills Zin '00

Napa Valley, $25 at the tasting room in February 2004.

Sometimes wine really does improve in the bottle.

I opened my second bottle of this with spaghetti this evening.
A good deal better after another couple of years (see below). Shows the difference between Napa and Sonoma or DCV Zins. Dark transparent ruby, more Sangiovese-like flavor than Syran-like, light, smooth amd medium long. A couple of years helped a lot!

From June 2004: Decent enough Zin. A faint sweetness on the mid palate, and a longish, berried finish. Slightly hot. Would have been a bargain at $15.

Either the finish shortened with the blending of the alcohol and tannin, or my opinion of length changed. Quite likely both.

There was only a bit of tartrate on the end of the cork. I drink so much unfined/unfiltered wine that I'm a little surprised to find a cork that isn't pretty crusty.

[Jenise]

John, years ago friends in Alaska arranged a 20 year retrospective of Grgich zins. IIRC, the span was 74-94 They owned most of the wines needed, and Mike Grgich sent the hole-fillers. It was quite impressive. There were, essentially, almost no dogs, and the best wines were not neccessarily the ones remembered as the best years, though some were. Anyway, very impressive. I wonder if these wines still age like that.

Napa Valley, $25 at the tasting room in February 2004.

Sometimes wine really does improve in the bottle.

Was it corked or screw capped?

Inquiring minds want to know....

You know the Great Wall of China? Hadrian's Wall? The Berlin Wall? The Mexican wall? They're putting up a Napa Wall to keep the screwcaps out!