Is this considered a "horizontal?"

I have the following bottles:

2013 Limerick Lane Zinfandel, RRV
2013 Limerick Lane Zinfandel Block 1910, RRV
2013 Robert Biale Zinfandel Limerick Lane Vineyard, RRV
2013 Carlisle Zinfandel Limerick Lane Vineyard, RRV

2013 Bedrock Zinfandel, Pagani Ranch
2013 Carlisle Zinfandel, Pagani Ranch
2013 Robert Biale Zinfandel, Pagani Ranch
2013 Ridge Zinfandel, Pagani Ranch

I ask as I’m considering having a few couples over in the next couple of months to share these to compare and contrast how different producers work with the same fruit and how their style, influence, and winemakers make delicious yet different wines from the same source.

Yes, it is.

I’d say, “yes.”

Those are some stunning wines! What about decanting/breathing logistics beforehand?

Thank you for the kind words, Drew.

I haven’t gotten that far in thinking this through, however, I have decanted young Zins in the past and my experience is that they seem to shut down after 30 - 45 minutes. I may have to decant for sediment. The bigger challenge is getting enough appropriate glassware!

Please let me know when you plan to open those bottles. I can bring a salad.

Definitely a horizontal.

I saw a talk with Michel chapoutier where someone asked what the best wine to serve with a salad is. His answer was “any of my competitors wines.”

AFAIK, Verticals are 1 vineyard across many vintages. A Horizontal is a single varietal, region, or year, but all wines must have something in common. Is this correct?

Hi Adam
I think common usage is:
Horizontal = different wines, producers (albeit typically with some commonality of style / grapes) but the same vintage
Vertical = The same label, over a number of vintages. Doesn’t have to be a single vineyard wine.

Regards
Ian

Yes it is.

As an example: Excerpt from the New York Times – “A 150-Year-Old Wine and Its Descendants Reveal Their Secrets”

“It is a rare privilege to taste 16 vintages of any wine, much less Lafite. Yet such a vertical tasting — as distinguished from a horizontal one, in which many wines from a single vintage are sampled — offers invaluable insights into some of wine’s greatest mysteries, which, even with all the advantages of modern science and technology, have yet to be understood:”

Cheers!

I did something very similar with the Rosellas vineyard. iIRC, I ended up with 14 different bottlings from the same vintage, including multiple bottlings from the same producers with different clones. It’s a blast to do - take some time to put together notes on the vineyard, background, etc. Check CellarTracker to see if there’s anything else out there that you might not have heard of; half the fun for me was chasing down small bottlings and procuring then. I found some amazingly kind winemakers that helped - Dave Miner and Bob Bressler, to be specific - and the story behind it made all the difference. Have a blast!