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Zinfandel & Cal Itals
Latest Reviews
by Tom Hyland, tnapa@aol.com
Our tasting of the newest releases of Zinfandels was focused primarily on the 2000 vintage. While this may not be a vintage will readily be associated with tannic and dense wines, our samplings display a relatively good balance across the board, with the caveat that we would like to see the alcohol levels come down a little. A wine at 15-16% alcohol by volume will tire most palates quickly.
St. Francis 2000 Pagani Vineyard, Sonoma Valley and Rosenblum Eagle Point Vineyard, Mendocino County (both 91 points) were tied as the highest rated zins of the tasting. True to form, the Pagani Vineyard bottling was opaque, chewy, and impressively oaky while Rosenblum's offering is much more fruit forward, berry flavored offering. Making up the quartet of Superlative wines are Edmeades 2000 Zeni Vineyard Zinfandel from Mendocino and Grgich 2000 Miljenko's Old Vines Zinfandel from Napa Valley (both rated 90 points).
As for Syrah, the stars of this tasting were clearly the wines from Cayuse, an artisan producer in Walla Walla. Ranging from 90 to 93 points, these wines displayed a myriad of flavors, from the usual ripe blackberry to mocha, chocolate, mint and even oregano along with strong new oak. The “Bionic Frog” bottling, a blend of selected clones, was especially intriguing in its Old World style with cinnamon and gingerbread aromas. All of Cayuse's Syrah bottlings come from proprietor Christophe Baron's own rocky vineyards in Walla Walla and are collectively some of the most impressive examples of Washington State's currently fashionable Syrahs.
Sangiovese from California fared less well as the wines too often displayed high acidity without much in the way of fruit. A little dried cherry and some spice were there for interest, but the wines were often one-dimensional. The exception was the 1999 Pietra Santa bottling with tobacco and oregano, ample fruit and a lengthy finish.
Petite Sirah performed much better, as it seems the California sunshine brings out the blackberry, spicy flavors of this grape so well. Pedroncelli and Parducci offered fine values, while Guenoc, with its Serpentine Meadow Reserve bottling showed the complexity
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