World Cup wines, a Zin gathering.

Had a few folks over yesterday for World Cup and some 1990s Zins. Game was fun and most of the wines showed well. Cuz the game began so early Pac-Time we started with some stellar 2007 Chards and a blind wine in a decanter brought over by Edson. Since this was the good ol’ US of A playing we drank domestic wines until the very end of the night!

Ceritas was the stylistic individual here with gobs of citrus fruit and reasonably restrained butter. Very high delicious factor and clearly well made. Disappeared very quickly compared to the other bottles. Comes from Porter-Bass Vineyard on Mays Canyon Rd, this is West Co!

Lynmar La Serenité had a tremendous nose of brioche but the most reticent fruit. Definitely needs a few years as this wine rounded out a bit as the bottle stayed open. Really elegant profile that would suit a lot of different foods. Most old world of the Chards served today.

Benovia La Pommeraie was totally in the sweet spot already with more subtle brioche on the nose but also ripe apple. Lots of fruit with apples and tropical aspects easily recognized. Very worthy and it is clear Mike Sullivan continues to make glorious Sonoma Chard.

2001 Robert Mondavi Fume Blanc To Kalon was the blind wine and it had the most explosive nose of pineapple and grapefruit imaginable. Golden in the decanter but taste was lacking considering the intense nature of the nose. Melinda liked this wine the most out of yesterday’s crowd.

1992 Ridge Maple showed in the claret style older Ridge Zin & PS can obtain. Not my favorite but the bottle was gone well before night’s end. I liked this wine least out of everybody.

1993 Ridge Maple was the better of the two on this day IMO. Lots of ripe Zin characteristics including medicinal notes. Was still drinkable today and perhaps 1/3 of the bottle was left.

1991 Ravenswood Old Hill was clearly elder to other vintages enjoyed but still robust and not nearly done. I always have trouble with bramble but this wine had that characteristic in spades! Last of a 4-pack I sourced long ago and while not the equal of the bottle enjoyed night of UFC 100 this was certainly not the worst of the lot.

1994 Ravenswood Old Hill showed very well and was nearly indistinguishable from the 1997. PSA - If you can find these wines buy them. This is a field blend from one of the oldest vineyards in Sonoma Co located off Hwy 12 just N of Sonoma.

1997 Ravenswood Old Hill was maybe a touch brighter than the 94 but both were youthful and lovely. Real winners and a testament to what Joel Peterson used to achieve with regularity. I thankfully have more and must admit I’d like to try a modern vintage one day.

Impetus for this gathering was The Ravenswood wines but focus really became the 1974 Sutter Home Deaver Vineyard once it was sourced. Sadly this wine didn’t live up to promise as I had read about tremendous showings of this bottle in So-Cal over the past year or two. Very light color and an older mouthfeel and flavor profile. Interesting historical wine for any Zin lover but on this day not the star.

1983 Guiraud simply rocked though! Despite a stuck capsule and difficult cork this Sauternes showed so light on its feet I think it is the best Guiraud I ever had. Not cloying or heavy in any way with bright acidity resounding. Still wonderful today too though the wine is rounder now with more honey.

Interesting story on the Sutter Home Deaver 1974. Bought three of these at auction a good 8-10 years ago here in Honolulu, 5 years back noticed one leaking. Cork was falling into the neck. Drank that puppy with some other zin fans and wow, what a wonderful wine. Don’t know what happened, maybe the plastic capsule helped with the seal but man, that wine was good. Also had a Deaver Ranch 2001 which was equally good. Great vineyard.

Nice job Guy’s…sorry I missed this. I think Mel and I would have been sitting together and downing that To Kalon Fume! Love the stuff!

The Guiraud sounds amazing!

That was a great tasting. Thanks again Doc and Mike for your generosity.

The Chard flight was fun - the Ceritas had the colossal frame next to the two but it was simultaneously wispy. The Lynmar offered the most remarkable nose. The Benovia was my overall favorite – it was a combination of the former but the clean profile (nose and palate) that won me over.

The Zin flight – I was amazed by all the great zins. The 93 Ridge Maple is on my top zins of all time along with the 91 and 94 Ravenswood Old Hill. I’m still haunted by the bouquet, taste and the silkiness of these wines. I guess I much prefer zins with ‘some’ age instead of the thunderous youngsters I normally drink. The 74 Sutter Home – I’ve been licking my chops all day waiting for this jewel. By itself, this was fine – it’s a little tired (still kicking) but I’m just tickled to have tasted this relic. Big thank you to Mike for sharing this.

The rock star of the day – Mel’s eggplant parmigiana and Lauren’s (Mom’s ?) lavish salad. Yum freaking yum.

Missed the game & the whites but luckily our little guys went down early enough for the Mrs. and I to stop in for a late but short visit (which coincides with my even shorter notes ).

Ridge - The '92 seemed smoother but much less interesting than the '93 to me.

Ravenswood - Really liked where the '94 was drinking and was prob by fave of the reds. The '97 was not far behind and may outshine at some point. '91 was good but much less expressive compared to the others.

The '74 was defintely interesting. light in color, nose was jolly rancher, leather with bit of rubber beach ball. light overall but held together.

The Sauternes was really singing. Enjoyed how this was all flavor with no flab and real treat to finish off the evening.

Thanks Doc for the invite. Enjoyed meeing Ed & Danielle and seeing Mike & Lauren again.

Zinfandel, especially very high alcohol zinfandel is perfect for the World Cup. I think that getting drunk is the only way to handle those frickin’ horns that they play non-stop at the games.

Those horns are as bad as this Guiraud was great.

A big thanks to Glenn & Mel for hosting us! Our fingers had been itching to open those Ravenswood Old Hills for a while, but I’m glad we waited to open them all at once!

The chards were great - While the Lynmar didn’t quite preform in the mouth, I think the nose predicts great things down the road. That Mondavi was crazy - I would have guessed Scholium Project… The nose was nice but the palate just didn’t deliver for me.

I’ll be the lone voice of dissent on the Ridge Maples - while the '93 was much more “Zin-Like” in character, the 1992 was more seamless and put together. The wine had developed into the claret style that I look for in older Ridge zins - while the '93 was much more boisterous. Both wines were great - just polar opposites stylistically.

The Old Hills where awesome all the way around - the '91s were already developing some secondary characteristics, while the '94 and '97s were still quite young. I swung back and forth between the '94 and '91 as a favorite all night - but all were worth the effort.

The '74 SH was interesting - actually in better shape than the '72 that I sampled a month ago, but not on par with the Joseph Swan and Corti Brother’s Zins from the same cold cellar. Not oxidized, but the color was Rose-like when pouring and darkened slightly with air. The nose developed some nice floral, cherry and mint notes, but the palate stayed fairly simple with a slight surge in tainnin sensation with about 30 minutes of air.

Lauren and I were excited about finally getting together with the Centrally Valley group again. And I don’t have to say it, but I’m already looking forward to our little event in January!

Absolutely awesome.

Sounds like a killer tasting, guys! I’ve only experienced a couple bottles of aged Ridge, and they certainly are a treat. U-S-A!

Maple vineyard has great fruit. They make their own zin as well.

Great notes, Glenn!

I think we should all be drinking Swiss Chasselas tonight.

Thanks for the notes - I love Joel’s older wines in general, and Old Hill especially.

Nice! I love Ridge.

Have to say, the Fume Blanc is really quite good (and I rarely enjoy, or even seek out, CA sauv blanc) - had a recent vintage at a restaurant a year or so ago and for $38 off the list, it was a steal.

Megan - you should try T-Bone’s Fiddlehead Honeysuckle Sav Blanc.