Is there a 100 point zinfandel?

WINE TALK
142

Joel Peterson always said Zin was more like Pinot than anything else…

143

Interesting. I’m far from being an expert, but more often than not, Zinfandel seems to adopt a Bordeaux-ish flavor profile as it ages. At least to my palette.

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144

Which is a very interesting comment, as personally I think his mature Zins take on more of an elegant Bordeaux profile. Over the last few years, I’ve gone through a mixed case out of Joel’s library with bottles ranging back to the 1980s, and every one of them approximated Bordeaux more than anything else, at least to me. The tobacco note was quite predominant. Arguably even a Graves profile, to be more specific.

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145

I opened a 1979 Joseph Swan Sonoma County Zinfandel last year that was a dead ringer for a great bottle of 1980s L-B Bordeaux. Just awesome stuff.

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146

Which is why I prefer to drink Zinfandel young. My greatest issue is I rarely drink anything over 13.5% alcohol, which is nigh impossible to find in good Zinfandel.

147

I wonder if he is talking about growing or winemaking instead of aged flavor profile?

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148

The stash of Ravenswood from the ‘90s that I’m still working through has skewed Left Bank as well. About the only exception was a ‘97 Monte Rosso that still said “Zin” to me.

They’ve all been excellent.

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149

Could be. As I recall it was in I’ll Drink To That podcast.

150

Just need to head up into the mountains: Sky Zinfandel Anyone? - #185 by M_Dildine

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151

I have experienced one Zinfandel that I personally found to be utter perfection: 2021 Carlisle Montafi. Of course this is all subjective, but it has everything I could ever want in a wine - perfect balance, typicity, amazing nuance, bones to age and an amazingly long finish. It is one of my favorite wines of all time. Eucalyptus for days.

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152

While I can’t get to 100 points, Carlisle Montafi shows up in the 3 of the 4 highest scores I’ve given to zinfandel, the other being Scherrer Shale Terrace.

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153

I think I’ve been fairly close to giving a couple of the Ravenswood library releases 100 points. It’s kinda a moot point for me because I’ve never rated anything 100 points on CT. But some of those Ravenswoods have come as close as anything I’ve ever tried from the Old World.