TN: Two Older Zins...(short/boring)

WINE TALK
1

Tried these last night:

  1. St.Francis Zin SonomaVlly OldVines (15.1%; 65 yr old Francesco’sVnyd; 12 mo. in Am.oak; SaH: 25.2 Brix; Bttld: Jan 1991) TomMackey/Kobrand 1989: Very dark color w/ slight bricking; very strong blackberry/boysenberry/Zin/licorice/RCCola very spicy quite dusty/OV smoe vanilla/toasty/oak beautiful complex nose; bit tart very dusty/OV/earthy very strong blackberry/boysenberry/Zin/RCCola very spicy/peppery light vanilla/oak complex Zin flavor w/ modest/ripe tannins; very long/lingering structured some tannic quite dusty/OV very strong blackberry/Zin/very spicy complex finish w/ modst/ripe tannins; very much like the Ravenswood OldHill Zins of old; a beautiful example ov OV Zin w/ plenty of very spicy fruit; no signs of age whatsoever.
  1. KentRasmussenWnry Zin Sonoma (13%) 1987: Very dark color w/ light bricking; rather strong leathery/horsecollar/bretty some blackberry/boysenberry/Zin/root beer bit dusty/OV fairly complex youthful nose; soft rather bretty/horsecollar/leathery fairly strong blackberry/boysenberry/Zin very spicy light toasty/oak some dusty/OV flavor w/ light/gentle tannins; very long/lingering rather dusty/OV strong blackberry/Zin/root beer/very spicy some vanilla/oak rather bretty/horsecollar finish w/ light tannins; bit on the bretty side but still plenty of wonderful youthful Zin fruit.

A wee BloodyPulpit:

  1. Not sure what vnyd is the FrancescoVnyd. Google tells me nothing. At one time, St.Francis also took Zin fruit from the PaganiRanch.
  1. I have, of course, followed KentRasmussen from the very start, when I fell in love w/ his PinotNoir and Chard. I first met Kent when I visited him at his estate vnyd down in the Carneros. He was this short/squat young (then) man w/ a short/bushy beard who reminded me for all the world of a cute little leprechaun like you find out under a toadstool, puffing away on this little pipe, smoking some of that tobacco that smells kinda funny. We’ve gotten together a number of times over the yrs. He took over an old meat packing plant up on the SilveradoTrail and converted it to a wnry and then built his home out back of it. They sold the home and moved down to Berkeley. The wnry was leased out to an operation, but I hear tell it has gone under. His wife, Celia, is quite an accomplished musician and has done a number of videos.
    He also makes less expensive wines, mostly from purchased grapes, under the Ramsey label, Celia’s maiden name. His wnry, w/ much smaller production, is now on his estate down in the Carneros. He has made some exceptional wines over the yrs, particularly some botrytis ones. He made Calif’s first Dolcetto, packaged in this tall ugly cobalt blue btl. It was quite good. Kent’s wines should be better known. (www.kentrasmussenwinery.com/)
    Tom
2

Glad to see that these showed well. I recently had a 1995 Cline Live Oak Vyd zin and a 1975 Burgess Napa/Sonoma zin that were both wonderful. They were certainly more than they were young, but not falling apart either. No detailed notes, but both came across very elegantly. The Burgess was 13.1% alc. and I didn’t catch the Live Oak ABV.

3

Thanks for the notes. Great, as always. Had some great old Ridges - 70s and 80s - years ago that were fantastic.

When we used to host our tastings, the '95 Saddleback zin used to kick everything’s else’s butt - Turley, Ridge, St Francis, etc. Does Nils still make a zin and, if so, how is it?

4

Tom-
Since 2010 Turley has sourced the Historic Francesco’s vineyard in Kenwood. The vineyard sits tucked back off highway 12 opposite of Lawndale road. It’s a beautiful site that is formed by a alluvial wash from Sonoma Creek. It is a very cool site for us, as we usually pick the vineyard the first two weeks of October. Currently there are about 3 acres of old vines left on the property. As I have been told Francesco’s is the vineyard that made up the very first St. Francis Zinfandel bottling. Prior to going to Turley the vineyard went to Kenwood for quite some time.

5

Tom is there anybody that you haven’t followed from the start? Might be a shorter list.

Nice notes, as always.

6

Tom, I am guessing the St. Francis was under cork? I had a 1992 St. Francis Pagani that was under one of those rock hard artificial corks that was just weird. The wine fell into the “intellectual” catagory as I followed it for a couple of days.

7

Yup…under cork. Cork was in good condition.
Tom

8

Thanks, Tegan. I’d forgotten that Turley was making Zin from that vnyd.
Tom

9

I’m a huge fan of KR, both as a person and as a winemaker. Great guy, lots of passion, and his wines are always quite delicious. Nice notes, Tom.

10

Kent says he hasn’t tasted this wine in many yrs & was surprised I found some life in it. He doesn’t recall what the grape source was, but thought it might be from PeterWellington’s vnyd, since they were classmates at Davis and he recalled buying some grapes from Peter.
Tom