Old Vines Offline #5 - Franchetti's in Santa Rosa - UPDATED POST EVENT

Event Planner - Online or Offline
41

Hello All.
I have a 75 Swan Zin and a few others which I have to find.

42

Okay, BT, if your '05 Talty qualifies (Mike’s vines are pretty old, admitted), then maybe I’ll grab the first ever Cemetery Zin from Mauritson from '04. Since Mike uses a bit of PS and Carignane, odds are better his survived. I had my last one a short time ago and it was still singing. Nice to see you posted about your Old Hill while I was still typing/resetting password/finding account info…

43

Glad you can make it Richard. This is shaping up nicely.

44

Here are the wines I have been gathering for this and other Old Vine events.
Bringing the bolded wines for sure, anything up here others want to try?

2006 Carlisle, Carlisle
1995 DeLoach, Gambogi
1995 DeLoach, Papera Ranch
1996 DeLoach, Saitone Ranch
1995 Ravenswood, Wood Rd. Belloni
1997 Scherrer, Old & Mature
2011 Scherrer, Old & Mature
1976 Louis Martini
1979 Edmeades, Dupratt Vineyard

45

flirtysmile

46

Great selection Mike, right now I’m considering a Picchetti Estate - a rare Santa Cruz Mountain (just downslope of Monte Bello) old vine Zin vineyard. 19th century planting. Hopefully new to some of the group!

47

Brian, I’m going to bow out, schedule is just too in flux. But that still leaves a good group of 12, sorry to miss it!

48

Regrets,I am unable to attend.
Kind regards - gene m.

49

That’s too bad. We’ll miss you Gene.

50

I’m booking Hotel La Rose now.

Some possibilities for dinner:
1992 Gary Farrell Zinfandel Russian River Valley
1993 Ridge Lytton Springs
2000 Kalin Cellars Cuvée d’Or Livermore Valley
2003 Ridge Syrah/Grenache Lytton Estate
2005 Carlisle Two Acres
2005 Carlisle Zinfandel Tom Feeney Ranch
2005 Amapola Creek Zinfandel Monte Rosso

51

Trying to negotiate corkage with the restaurant. Right now @ $10/bottle. Manager is supposed to get back to me tomorrow.

52

Reminder everyone to bring cash? Brian, you know how much?

53

Restaurant never called me back. Initially it was $10 per bottle which I thought we could negotiate down. At Rosso they waived corkage and with $40/person they got a sizeable tip. I am thinking maybe we prepare $45 per and check the bill.

BTW, I stopped by Scherrer this afternoon on my way home from work and Fred had opened a 3L of '93 OMV Zinfandel. He said it was a leaker and he couldn’t sell it so why not open it for customers. It was fantastic. Told Fred about our offline and asked what he had that we could add. He said “Let me look in back.” Returned with an '04 Shale Terrace. Said it should be really interesting.

54

On countdown to kick-off. See you all tonight.

55

That’s Fred, love both the OMV and Shale Terrace, based on an '09 I had a while ago that '04 should be in a really good spot right now.

Y’all have fun tonight, expecting to read some great reviews in the next couple days.

56

Another successful Old Vines Offline last night. 12 winos, 18 open bottles, some gems, some duds, some great food and great company. I saw Richard taking notes so I expect him to post them eventually.

My faves of the night '05 Tom Feeney from Carlisle and Williams-Selyem, '93 Ridge Lytton Springs, '04 and '97 Scherrer Shale Terrace, '04 Radio Coteau Von Weidlich and the '05 Turley 101. Lots more showing well. The '86 and '93 Ravenswood Old Hills were just there and not doing anything exciting. The Dunnewood Charbono was tasty as was the Kalin Semillon.

The restaurant worked great and they invited us back, weird I know. The addition of the ping pong table was strong! Props to the Stonekings for representing SoCal and Mike Dildine for making the trek up the coast. Congratulations to Nick and Lara on their engagement. Thanks to everyone for coming and bringing great wines, except for Richard [whistle.gif] [wink.gif] , it was memorable as always.

The dead soldier lineup

Drunk Berserker Ping Pong!

Motley Crew

57

Thank you Brian for organizing. Another awesome event. Franchettis is great.

It was great to see everyone. Nick and Lara, Congrats on the engagement and happy birthday lara.

See you all soon.

58

Hey, give me a break. My '93 R’wood turned out okay, in my opinion. I’ll bring a backup next time, because we clearly did not have enough wine.
My very short notes on the wines I tasted, since I know I didn’t quite get to everything. (White wine? Really?)
’86 Ravenswood Old Hill: Intact. Very mild fruit. A little bitter. Still good acid. Black cherry and some other fruits.
’97 Scherrer Alexander Valley Zin “Shale Terrace”: Faded color. Aromas and flavors of bright red cherries and roses.
Bedrock Nouveau: Beaujolais like with that carbonic maceration. A background aroma of banana. Cherry kool-aid flavors. Interesting, not everyone’s thing. But it’s harder to find interesting wine than good wine, so there’s that.
’95 Deloach Russian River Valley “Gambogi Vineyard” Zin: No recollection of this wine. Was this the corked one?
**'05 Williams-Selyem “Tom Feeney Ranch” Zinfandel:**A little hot with ETOH (although it had less than the Carlisle). Candied red fruit. Improved with air and some of the heat blew off.
’05 Carlisle “Tom Feeney Ranch” Zinfandel: Grippy with a little hard tannin. Really nice black cherry flavors. Gorgeous Zin. Started to oxidize as night went on, so I’d drink it soon and in one sitting. But it was WOTN when first opened.
’04 Scherrer Alexander Valley Zin “Shale Terrace”: Weird. Never had a wine from Fred I didn’t love until now. Maybe something happened to it in bottle.
’03 De La Milliere Chateauneuf du Pape “Cuvee Unique”: A pretty typical CdP, a little hot with ETOH. Didn’t taste terribly old.
’95 Dry Silk (Dunnewood) Charbono: Tasted like tomato leaves over red and black cherries.
’12 Pucchetti Santa Cruz Mountains Zinfandel: From old vines just below Ridge’s Montebello. This grew on me. Textbook brambly Zin character. It cycled through being hot when opened, blowing off, and being ETOH dominated again, or it might have made a better impression. Was in running for WOTN except for that. 15% ABV–some can carry it, some can’t.
’93 Ravenswood Old Hill Zinfandel: Started off as the worst wine of the night, with powerful brett. Like a diaper, really bad. But it blew off and was okay, and then finally pretty good. Surprised to find fruit under there that wasn’t wrecked. BT and I will agree to disagree.
’95 Ravenswood “Wood Road” Zinfandel: Vinegary.
’05 Talty Estate Zinfandel: Past its prime. Balsamic and strawberries. I’ve had lots of bottles of this, and this was the lingering memory of itself. Its prime was pretty glorious, a tightrope walk of VA, fruit, and heady aromas–almost a Burgundian Zin with a style all its own.

There was a Turley 101 Vineyard that I also sampled, but took no notes.

I had a great time with y’all and look forward to doing it again. Mazel tov to the lovebirds!

59

Forgot the Couteau. That was quite enjoyable, too. Really young, holding up very well at eleven years old.

60

Thanks for chiming in Richard. Look forward to seeing you next month!