98 Points Parker. 2013 Turley Salvador Vineyard Zinfandel. $38.
The 2013 Zinfandel Salvador Vineyard comes from another ancient, organically farmed vineyard, this one in Contra Costa. Its vines were planted in 1896, and the soils are pure sand. An absolutely amazing Zinfandel, this gorgeously proportioned, super-rich wine crosses the palate with a surprisingly unnoticeable 16.1% alcohol. Good acidity, a corpulent, full-bodied, multi-dimensional mouthfeel with blueberry and blackberry jam, some cassis, earth and forest floor notes are all present in this spectacular wine that again will transport a blind taster to the South of France rather than the backwaters of California. I suppose if the FX series “Sons of Anarchy” had a house wine after a long ride on their choppers, this would be it. This is pedal-to-the-metal, full-throttle Zinfandel at its greatest, what California does so well and what no other region in the world can produce. This is killer stuff and a tribute to our early immigrants, who had the foresight to plant these vines at this remarkable site. Drink it over the next decade. 98 Points
This is routinely one of my favorite Turley wines from a sandy patch of land sandwiched in between housing complexes, but due to real-estate developments, the vineyard was pulled out a couple years ago. This years 2019 release is the very last year of the Turley Salvador Vineyard.
Definitley a cab. But either way, my guy Tom Lee at Zinfandel Chronicles is the man! Excellent wine reviews, and zins in particular…although I would argue that he usually drinks them far too young
Agree Uberroth is as good as it gets in a Zinfandel. As to the original question, since “100 pts” is completely subjective, of course there are many 100 pt Zinfandels out there. Heck, if Suckling was a zin man, there would be dozens of them by now.
That was part of an article where RP praised the entire 2013 Turley line up. I think this was the highest score he ever gave to a Zin. I was hooked by Turley Black Sears
back in the 90’s, but that is also no more. I agree that Ueberoth is probably their most consistently good bottling, but Carlisle Papera is my current favorite.
Carlisle Papera is probably my favorite as well although all of Mike’s Zins from the Piner Olivet area are pretty incredible. My highest rated Zin year to date is the 2016 Carlisle Papera.
Purple in color. 15% ABV. Sublime nose of bright, juicy fruits, baking spices and pepper. Medium to full bodied with mouth watering acidity. Impeccable balance. Cherry liqueur, raspberry compote, wild strawberry and pepper on the palate. Exceptional length on the finish. It doesn’t get much better than a Zinfandel from the Papera Vineyard in the hands of Mike Officer. The 2016 is stunning. Best over the next 3-5 years.
Yes, of course there is … if you subscribe to the idea that wines should be “rated” for what they are and not in absolute terms (which is already kind of a murky idea IMO). Given that “varietal character” often plays a significant role in evaluating quality (which in practice means “how alike is this example to the benchmark producer of this grape in the original growing region for this grape in the old world?”), IMO you have to judge a wine against like wines, and scores should reflect that.
IOW: If I pop the cork on a 1989 Ridge Zinfandel and it tastes identical to a 1989 Haut Brion, is it a 100 point wine? If your answer is yes, then you probably would say no to the idea that there can be a 100 point zin simply because the known universe has not produced a zinfandel wine of that absolute quality. OTOH, if your answer is “No, it shouldn’t taste like that because it’s not a cab-based wine from Graves, so it can’t be a 100 point wine” then I think necessarily you have to allow for the idea that there can be and is a 100 point zinfandel out there (I don’t drink tons of zin, so I won’t try to claim what the benchmark is).