Home | Wine Reviews | Wine Journals | Updates

by Tom Hill

A self-admitted wine geek, Tom lives in Northern New Mexico and works as a computational physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory doing numerical neutron transport & large scale code development. He has been tasting wines since 1971, participates locally with a couple of large tasting groups in his area, and is practically a fixture at most California wine festivals, such as the Hospice du Rhône, Rhône Rangers, and ZAP. Other interests: Tom is heavily into competitive sport fencing (foil & epee), biking, cooking, basketball, skiing, backpacking, mountain climbing.

Zins From the Archives - May 4, 2011

We tasted last week some  Zins From The Archives:

  1. Calif ShenandoahVnyds Zin DalPortoVnyds/AmadorCnty (12.4%; SaH: 22.3 Brix; TA: 6.0gm/l;
    pH: 3.1; 990 cs) 1982:     Med.light color w/ some bricking; rather cedary/pencilly/old Zin slight wet wool/pungent nose; tart rather cedary/pencilly very metallic/tangy no fruit rather tired/ old Zin dried out flavor; med.long tangy/metallic tired/dried out finish; pretty much a dead wine and offers up no pleasure.
    __________________
  2. Calif ShenandoahVnyds CabernetSauvignon AmadorCnty (13.4%) 1981: Med.color w/ little bricking; rather herbal/Cab some pungent/cedary/charred/oak slight blackcurranty/Cab some complex nose; some tannic/astringent/dried out fairly smooth light herbal/Cab rather charred/cedary/oak flavor; long fairly smooth cedary/charred/oak bit herbal/Cab complex finish; speaks of old Cab and little of Amador; still alive and a pleasure, but getting pretty shakey.
    __________________
  3. Ravenswood Zin SonomaCnty Old Vine (14.3%; 54% SonomaVlly/30% DryCreekVlly/16% AlexVlly; TA: 0.58 gm/100ml) 1991: Med.dark w/ some browning; light cedary/pencilly/oak light blackberry/Zin some complex bit spicy/peppery/dusty/old vine very attractive nose; soft/smooth slight tannic/dried out light cedary/pencilly/old Zin some blackberry/Zin/spicy/peppery flavor; long rather smooth light pencilly/cedary some blackberry/peppery finish; still very much alive and offers up pleasure but starting to get a bit shakey.
    __________________
  4. Ravenswood Zin BelloniVnyd/SonomaCnty (14.8%; 710 cs; TA: 0.82 gm/100ml) 1991: Dark color w/ little bricking; fairly strong blackberry/raspberry/Zin very spicy slight wet wool bit cedary/pencilly fairly complex nose; soft quite spicy/blackberry/Zin/peppery light cedary/pencilly complex flavor; slight tangy rather spicy/blackberry/Zin/peppery smooth complex finish; still in lovely shape and plenty of fruit  therein; a graceful/gentle old lady.
    __________________
  5. Ravenswood Zin SonomaCnty (13.4%) 1986: Med.color w/ slight bricking; some cedary/pencilly/old Zin/wet wool slight blackberry/Zin bit pepperminty complex nose; soft some dried out/tired/tannic light cedary/pencilly/old Zin bit wet wool little fruit flavor; med. cedary/pencilly/old Zin somewhat tired/dried out/old Zin/tannic slight pungent/wet wool finish; somewhat interesting but rather tired & dried out old Zin.
    __________________
  6. Ravenswood Zin SonomaCnty (13.4%) 1986: Same color; much the same nose but a bit more pepperminty & complex nose; bit more pepperminty and not quite as tired/dried out on the palate; seems a bit more alive but still not much pleasure here.
    __________________
  7. LimerickLane Zin CollinsVnyd/RRV (13.5%) 1993: Med.light w/ considerable bricking; rather tired/old Zin/wet wool/wet army blanket no fruit slight cedary nose; rather tired/dried out/astringent/tannic no fruit flavor; pretty much dead & gone.
    __________________
  8. JosephSwanVnyds Sonoma Zin (??%) 1979: Light color w/ some bricking; some TCA/musty some bretty/wet horse light cedary/pencilly complex nose; soft very smooth/delicate slight TCA bit old Burgundy/Pinotish slight spicy little fruit bit cedary/pencilly complex flavor; med.long pencilly/old Burgundy/Pinotish smooth/gentle finish; definitely a bit of TCA on the nose but a pleasant old Pinot character underneath.
    __________________
  9. LyttonSpringsWnry Zin SonomaCnty (14.4%) 1985: Med.color w/ slight bricking; very light/almost no slight cedary/pencilly weak spicy/licorice/pungent/peppery no fruit nose; tart/tangy light cedary/pencilly light spicy/licorice/peppery delicate/gentle bit complex flavor; med.short light cedary/pencilly/old Zin light spicy/peppery smooth finish w/ little fruit; still in good shape but almost devoid of flavor and aromatics; a delicate/elegant/frail old lady of a Zin $8.85
    __________________
  10. Ridge Calif Geyserville/SonomaCnty (50% Zin/30% Carignane/20% PS; 14.3%; Bttld: Feb'93;
    Drk: 1/93-?: PD) 1991:     Med.dark color w/ little bricking; lovely DraperPerfume/toasted coconutty/ cedary/vanilla/oaked some spicy/black cherry/raspberry/licorice complex nose; soft/smooth some DP/toasted coconut/vanilla/oak some spicy/raspberry/Zin light licorice flavor; med.long toasted coconut/vanilla/oak light raspberry/black cherry/Zin/licorice smooth finish; a smooth/balanced/gentle Zin; more interesting/complex than the Pagani but will probably die sooner.
    __________________
  11. Ridge Calif Zin PasoRobles/SLOCnty (14.9%; Bttld: March'93; Drk: 3/93-3/98-3/99: PD) 1991: Med.color w/ slight browning; light blackberry/jammy slight ruhbarb light vanilla/toasty/oak some complex nose; soft/smooth jammy/Paso/Zin light vanilla/oak lovely complex flavor; long ripe/blackberry/jammy/PR Zin some vanilla/oak smooth complex finish; still very much alive and speaks of PR Zin; lovely but a bit lacking in energy. $12.00
    __________________
  12. Ridge Calif Zin Pagani/SonomaVlly (100% Zin; 15.4%; 23 brls; Bttld: May'93; Drk: 4/93-?: PD) 1991: Med.color w/ little bricking; rather pungent/gunpowder/ozone/WWII beacon/smokey/tarry/ pungent some pencilly/oak some blackberry/Zin/boysenberry/big fruit quite complex nose; soft/lush big fruit/blackberry/Zin/boysenberry light pencilly/toasty/oak/vanilla some licorice/tarry/pungent quite complex smooth flavor; very long pungent/licorice/tarry some toasty/charred/oak very boysenberry/ blackberry/Zin smooth finish; probably near or beyond its peak; still very much alive and full of fruit.
    __________________
  13. TheFirestoneVnyd Merlot SantaYnezVlly/Calif (TheAmbassador'sVnyd; 13.0%) TonyAustin/ AndreTchelistcheff 1979: Med.color w/ some browning; rather pungent/charred/smokey/oak/toasty some Bdx/earthy/gout de terroir/mushroomy rather herbal complex nose; fairly tart quite herbal/Cab slight bretty/unclean very toasty/burnt/charred/oak light tannic complex flavor; med.long quite herbal/Cab some Bdx-like/earthy gout de terroir very charred/burnt/oak finish; quite herbal and some Bdx-like earthy character; not exactly a pleasurable wine but still very much alive and rather interesting. $7.95
    Ridge Zinarch 23, 201
And the usual BloodyPulpit:

1. Wine #6 is the same wine as #5 and was served as a mystery wine; just to see how close they were. They were pretty much the same wine though #6 seemed to be slightly more alive. No dramatic differences. About a half inch less fill on #6. Most tasters found them to be pretty similiar but nobody suggested it was the same wine.
__________________
2. Firestone: This was one of the very first Firestone Merlots. Made by TonyAustin w/ AndreTchelistcheff as the consultant. Back then, their Cab-based wines were extremely herbal; though not as bad as the Monterey veggie Cabs, and not very well liked. I was surprised how well this wine has stood the test of time. Still pretty herbal...but still very much alive. Wines like this was what prompted them to give up on Cabernet in SantaBarbara Cnty, as well as up at Tepesquet, and most were ripped out. Fortunately, the finally figured out where to grow Cab in SBC and now they make some world-class Cabs there.
__________________
3. LyttonSprings: This was one of the old LyttonSpringsWnry Zins, then owned by DickSherwin. During the '80's, he was taking all his grapes and Ridge was no longer making LS Zin. This wine was, of course, a field blend of Zin/Grenache/PetiteSirah. Ridge bought the property in 1991 and continued the LyttonSpringsWnry label for a few yrs, making it in a bit unclean/bretty style w/ a bit of VA.
__________________
4. Old Zins like these are fun to taste. They seldom offer the sensual pleasure that young Zin presents, but they certainly offer up an intellectual pleasure. Of these, the Pagani was my clear favorite.

TomHill

[Additional Wine Reviews from Tom Hill]

 

Home | Wine Reviews | Wine Journals | Updates

Copyright © 1993 - 2010, Tom Hill- All rights reserved
No original material may be reproduced without written consent
Mail & Comments - Grape-Nutz
Updated 5.24.11