Zinfandels and similar blends

Our local cadre assembled on another hot evening last week to drink some Zinfandel, and zin driven blends. The venue was the wonderfully accommodating Il Forno, which put us in the private cellar and provided a crystal army of Stolzle.
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Overall: although I buy the odd bottle of Ridge here and there, this isn’t a focus varietal for my attention, and I sense among our group that I’m not an outlier. For my tastes the wines ran a shade hot and grapey, despite bottle aging. Still it was fun to get together and talk about these.

We started with a Vilmart ‘Grand Cellier’ [Champagne] which I found to be steely and lean.
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Then after a little time in a decanter, came the 1997 Turley ‘Moore/Earthquake’ [Coombsville] zinfandel which denoted 16.8% abv on the label. I found it to show licorice and raisin notes. This one of the rare zin vineyards in what is a cab AVA; the same vineyard will show up bottled under another producer later.

A brace of Ridge’s were next, leading off with the 2010 Ridge ‘Lytton Springs’ [Dry Creek Valley] which has 14.4% abv and shows a bit more acid than the prior wine. There are brambley and coffee notes as well for my tastes.
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2017 Ridge ‘Lytton Springs’ [Dry Creek Valley] 14.8% abv and when compared to the above, I get more red raspberry notes. I liked it a bit more, if I was forced to choose.

Then we had a modern interpretation of the same Moore vineyard we led off with: 2017 Biale ‘R.W. Moore’ [Coombsville] 15% abv and for my tastes better than the Turley vinification. I took this Zinfandel home and enjoyed it over a couple of nights afterwards. It improved with a little air.
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2009 Biale ‘Bravo Aldo’ [Napa] from a magnum, and decanted. This is a selection of their best zinfandel lots as I understand, and not made in all years. 15.2% abv. Rich and excellent with structure, caramel and red fruit flavors. The group really enjoyed this.

Finally we had a curiosity which didn’t come with either AVA nor varietal labeling. 2019 Adobe Road ‘Shift’ [California?] This is a blend of zin, tempranillo, petit sirah and other items from a range of North Bay counties. It’s a project from a professional race car driver I think, and has an unusual bottle packaging - intended to look like a Porsche gear shift complete with a metal 6 tree screwed to the front of the glass. 14.8% abv and full bodied, and from my perspective, weirdly flavored.
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For the most part, the foods we had with all this didn’t seem to pair well. Sticky sweet ribs would have been best, with the zin served in plastic crushy cups. But it was good to see everyone and learn about a local varietal champion.
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