Not for sure a Ravenswood library wine as I bought it on WineBid, but the fill level and general cleanness of the bottle indicate to me that it’s either a library release or I got very lucky on provenance.
This was an absolute banger. In the glass the wine showed its age with the beginnings of some browner tones to the color but it maintained a garnet core.
The wine was decanted at approx 50f cellar temperature, and I left it for two and a half hours before tasting (other than an initial check for soundness) to breathe and come up to a cool room temperature.
The nose foretold good things, though the overall picture on swirl and sniff was more “warm year right bank Bordeaux” than what I typically think of as Sonoma Zin.
The nose had mint, chocolate, woodsy earth, maybe eucalyptus, black cherries, all at a fairly high degree of intensity.
On the palate the wine was round, with a full body, balancing acidity, and mostly resolved tannins that lent a velvety grip. The flavors largely tracked the nose with the addition of some blackberry, tobacco, and soy sauce, beef broth tones. The finish was moderately long. The alcohol at 14.8 was well hidden.
On the whole this was an excellent wine that really nailed the “one foot in California one foot in Bordeaux” trick that older Zin from strong producers can pull off. A genuinely special and memorable bottle.
Joel had recently bought back his library wines from Ravenswood. Last couple years he has offered mystery cases of those wines. Maybe this bottle came from one of those cases….??
Inspired by this bottle, I went back and listened to the Bedrock pod with Will Bucklin over the weekend. Such a cool backstory to this vineyard.
And apparently they had eucalyptus trees all around the vineyard before the 2017 fires. So I guess that may be what I was smelling on the “maybe eucalyptus” note!
Of note is Joel’s response to the TTB alcohol warning which he had printed on the opposite side of the back label. I’m paraphrasing his story behind it, but essentially the sentiment was that if the government wants to tell the consumer what’s bad about wine, he’d tell them what’s good about it. We learned about this during our visit with Joel last week. His version of it, seen in the second picture Justin posted, was only able to be included for a few vintages- if I recall correctly, Joel said 1994-1996.
I actually think I may sit this one out. I have Tablas Creek, Turley, Easton, S & Hem, Desire Lines all arriving soon. Just got a case from Tekstura yesterday. I don’t want to spend any more and cellar is full. Also wife is gonna kill me when she sees all this coming in.
