A recent mention of the Scherrer 2004 Old & Mature Vines Zin made me wonder where I had put my bottles, and they turned up in a friend’s cellar that I use for some overflow storage. This gave us an excuse to have a mini vertical/horizontal tasting over some basketball games. It was a little informal so my notes aren’t very good.
4/3/2011 2003 Scherrer Shale Terrace. Great blackberry nose with some raspberry that doesn’t usually appear in the OMV. Nice at cellar temp. A bit hot but not overripe. Light oak. Little tannin.
4/3/2011 2004 Scherrer Shale. A little younger, slightly more reserved (not much) and slightly more tannic. A little more complex with some earth and tar notes.
4/3/2011 2003 Scherrer OMV. More serious, a little tannic, a little oak. Plum and blackberry nose. More texture - a little of the creaminess of the 96.
4/3/2011 2004 Scherrer OMV. More primary. Less expressive in the nose, but very pure blackberry and a touch of the unexpected raspberry. Richer than the Shale. A little tannin, less than the 03. Finish has the sense of biting on a crisp apple.
Of these I think my favorite was the 03 OMV, and my friend independently decided the same. all four were very good in their own way. I felt there was a clear difference in the 03 and 04 OMV with the 04 more of a softened, less wild version of what you taste early on, and the 03 having made it’s transformation into the creamy-textured mature OMV form (my benchmark for this is the 96). I don’t know how much of this difference is due to the vintage and how much the age.
Both Shales were softer and I would be more inclined to drink them sooner, though none of these wines seemed in any danger. I would recommend serving the Shales in particular at cellar temp (decanting time in the cellar would be fine) - they tasted fantastic that way.
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