2009 Portteus Old Vine Zinfandel - from the Rattlesnake Hills area of the Columbia Valley in Washington, this was deep red, had a delightful nose of blackberry and cocoa plus the slightly green notes you can get from America oak. Medium long and with slightly sweet fruit it was at a good place and quite enjoyable, showing little indication of the 17% alcohol.
WHOA! I never thought I’d see a TN for a Portteus wine here, but am super stoked to see one. This winery, along with a handful of others, was one of the first places we frequented when I was getting into wine years ago. That’s really cool that it held up so well. Do you own any other Portteus wines?
I only have what I picked up on that trip - a couple more bottles of this wine - it struck me as the most worthy when I tasted it at the winery. The winery guys came out to try and figure out what the heck I was driving on that trip - the right hand drive seemed to confuse them as well.
1 Like
Yeah, that rig would stand out just a little in the Yakima Valley. It was a lot of pickups and tractors up where that tasting room was back then!
A lot of them were American car fans so when I popped the bonnet and showed them the big block Chrysler with a sixpack, they got a bit excited, regardless of what car it was in.
We too used to frequent Portteus back in the day.
Havnt drive in there for awhile.
I do intend to get back over to Silver Lake near there now that the former Buty winemaker is in charge.
Also, the Portteus Syrah from Va Piano is excellent!
I hadn’t heard that the winemaker at Silver Lake is of Buty lineage! That’s good because the Silver Lake wines have been terrible.