This was a cool journey, to work through these 3 bottles over the past couple weeks. I enjoyed the Papera at home, took the RRV AVA bottling to Florida for a business trip, then returned home and closed the trio by opening the Carlisle. In terms of how I would stack these, very interesting. While I don’t know the parts that made the AVA blend, I would guess that the RRV has both the Papera and Carlisle in it. It’s funny, and if true, that AVA blend drinks the least best of the three, with the Carlisle in the middle slot and the Papera real good, the top dog. One of these days, I need to do some blind tasting between Mike’s Carlisle zins and Adam’s Novy zins and see how they fare next to each other. In any case, I appreciate Adam staying with zin, and like Mike, keeping it affordable and supporting the legacy of these old vine plots. Thanks for reading.
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2012 Novy Family Wines Zinfandel Carlisle Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley (4/3/2014)
I already enjoy Mike’s Carlisle wines and have been drinking this plot of Carlisle for as long as I can recall, probably back to the 2003. Adam has made the wine from here for some time too so it’s cool to see their partnership around Adam getting Mike’s fruit. This Novy 2012 comes in twist, much like the terrific 2012 Novy Papera I had last week. This wine tonight is listed at about a 1% point higher in alc than the Papera so I’ll have to drink 1% less (well, try!). Reminds me of the Carlisle plot, in that it typically has a licorice, loam quality to it. Fresh berry, some jammy edges, too and as it breathes out, there comes a boysen quality to the fruit. There is some alcohol in the nose here, as at 15.5% this would be more difficult to avoid having it not show up. Along with the fruit and Carlisle signature, some nice acidity floating in the back of the finish. It’ll take me 3 days to finish this wine, so that provides some runway to look for changes. The Novy Papera was great so it will take some rally to match that wine. We’ll see…so Day 2, and this will be the end of my note, the wine is quite close in tone to yesterday but what has snuck into the profile is an orange zest note. It’s distinct and while not as sharp as eating an orange peel, but it’s akin to how it flavors food when used in cooking, a bit of a pungent appearance which I enjoy. Lots of acid here across a medium plus texture and good weight. FWIW, the alcohol note I mentioned y/day is less present today, too. As to a drink window, there is plenty of fruit here and with the acid, I’d wait another year or so and let this soften. Overall, this is RRV zin, from a great vineyard, made well.
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2012 Novy Family Wines Zinfandel Russian River Valley - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley (3/31/2014)
I didn’t like this as much as the 2012 Papera that I had a few nights ago. Where the two wines diverged is I found the Papera more balanced and fleshy, great acid whereas this AVA bottling here was tight and also the alcohol impacts the wine as a bit strong for me. Only had a glass over dinner as I shared this with a few friends so nothing to retaste to see if it evolved.
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2012 Novy Family Wines Zinfandel Papera Ranch - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley (3/29/2014)
Twisted off the cap on this bottle a full 2 days ago (on Thursday, today is Saturday so three different days tasting the wine). I’ve been enjoying this for the fruit and the supporting acid. Listed alc is 14.7% and it drinks pretty true to that #. Black raspberry, tarter blackberry and juicy fruit. There is a bit of a brisk, licorice note in the finish of this wine and that note, along with the fruit, maintains energy here. It’s neither thick nor syrupy as Zin can get at times, nor heavy instead showing a medium plus weight with just a shade of density in the finish. For those who seek a balance of pure zin fruit with some good supporting acid, it’s here. Very nice.
Posted from CellarTracker