A rousing Paso Robles Roundhouse Rumble, AKA “Dueling Dusi’s”

It’s brother vs. brother and east vs. west in this battle of iconic and historic California Zinfandels from the 2012 vintage (you thought you were reading a wine tasting note and not copy from a cheesy ESPN promo script)?

Dusi Vineyard was planted by the Dusi family in 1945. The vineyard is now split into two sections divided by highway 101. On the east side, Benito Dusi Ranch, fruit has been going to Ridge’s “Paso Robles” bottling since 1967. On the west side of the highway, Dante Dusi Vineyard, fruit going for many years to Turley. Both sections are 100% Zinfandel, head-trained, dry farmed and sit on gravelly alluvial soils.

The Ridge weighs in at 14.8% alcohol, the Turley a robust 16.3%.

Visually the two wines were completely indistinguishable to me – a bright and pretty medium ruby red.

Aromatically, the wines were both expressive and somewhat similar – the Ridge showed somewhat more of a brambly, spice element and the Turley more red fruit.

On the palate, the Ridge shows bright red and black fruit with a bit of a brambly, herbal edge. Energetic and well balanced on the palate – the wine has medium depth and good length.

The Turley is bigger, rounder and deeper with raspberry and cherry highlights. No trace of the high alcohol level. This is a big wine that avoids ponderousness with good acidic structure. Somewhat longer than the Ridge.

These are young Zins, but I usually drink my Dusi’s young. Ridge has even talked about an aging progression in their lineup from the Paso Robles up through Pagani Ranch, Lytton Springs and finally to the Geyserville, a famously long ager.

I’ve bought, stored and tasted these two wines for years, picking one would be like asking me to chose a favorite from my two children. I will say that the Ridge seems to carry more flavor complexity and the Turley more hedonistic power. They are both classics!
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Interesting comparison, Mike. Sorta pretty much where I’d expect the wines to be.
You should meet BeniDusi sometime when you’re down that way. A really class-act gent w/ this really neat/cat-that-swalloed-
the-canary twinkle in his eye. Unmarried I believe & no heirs. I believe Beni’s up in his 80’s and still does all the vnyd work.
The vnyd looks like it’s maintained w/ manicure scissors. Incredible.
Tom

I thought the granddaughter (?) is now running the vineyard and has her own wine label now called “J.”

I’ve met Janell, she is passionate about that great vineyard. Dante’s granddaughter, I believe.

I think it is called J Dusi [at least that what I recall when I was in the tasting room with her grandmother and herself and the rest of the family run tasting room.

Mike,

What is the distinction between the Ridge Paso Robles and the Ridge ATP Dusi Ranch? Any idea? Also, I seem to remember (years ago) that the Paso Robles had a very chalky quality to it (which I enjoyed) - does it still have this characteristic (haven’t had it in a while).

Scot

I love your posts, Mike - often with a clever title or subject matter, thank you.

That Turley Dusi is about the only Turley that I’ve enjoyed - it’s surprisingly balanced, while obviously being a ‘big’ wine, too.

Thanks Todd. If you haven’t yet, give Turley’s other two Paso Robles Zins a shot - Pesenti and especially Ueberroth (one of my favorite Zins). For a surprisingly lighter touch, the Kirschenmann from Lodi. Tegan is dialing things back a bit and the lineup has never been better.

Wow, Scot…I’m amazed that anyone else remembers those old Ridge Dusi Zins that were like that.
When they started making PasoRobles Zin off BeniDusi’s ranch, they were harvesting much earlier than they do now. Those Zins had a
distinctly chalky/earthy character, in the 12% alcohol range, and were not particularly attractive. In the early-mid '80’s, they started picking later and
letting the alcohol get above 14% and the Zins displayed more of the jammy/boysenberry Paso Zin character, yet had the structure & balance that many of
the overripe ones do not.
There is no consistent pattern in the PR Zin vs. the Dusi Zin ATP that I can tell that’s obvious. In general, though, the Dusi ATP Zin tends to be
wine that is a bit riper and that Eric feels would put their standard PR Zin over the top. And they occasionally make a LatePicked or LateHarvest
Dusi Zin ATP from lots that are particularly ripe and have some (slight) RS.
At one time, Ridge used to make their Essence Zin (higher RS) from DusiRanch grapes, grapes that were left to hang into the 30Brix range.
The Essences were terrific, like drinking boysenberry syrup.
Finally, Beni told PaulDraper “no more/never again”. Beni is such a meticulous farmer and he couldn’t bear to see those grapes being “wasted” by
being left to hang so long. He was convinced that all his neighbors were driving by his vnyd and seeing those grapes hanging out there, long after
everybodys Zin had been harvested, and going into town and talking amongst themselves how Beni had lost it and didn’t know how to farm grapes anymore!!
Tom

Pesenti is probably my favorite.