Yea I know, yawn, they just go about year after year making consistently good-to-great wines with rarely a down year.
2012 Ridge Geyserville may be the best young Geyserville that I have had, and I have been buying this wine most years for a long time.
Huge bouquet. A room-filling bouquet. Perfumed, rich, smoky, sexy. A bit exotic. Clove cigarettes. Dark spicey fruits, graphite and licorice on the nose and palate. A very large-scaled wine but good acid to keep it fresh, from being cloying. Ripe fruit but of the spicey, brambly, tangy kind, mainly black raspberry and wild blackberry. Tongue-coating, fleshy, tangy and big tannins clamp down on the very long, sweet finish.
Unabashedly Zinfandel. This is Americana. Grill me a huge ribeye and let’s roll!
Let me just sit here, swirling the wine, taking in the nose. Love it.
True, true . . . just having a little fun, being overly-exuberant.
Geyserville stands alone in one material respect: Structure. I’m not aware of any other Cali Zin that is structured so well, great spline, wonderful delineation and tremendous breadth. It’s readily apparent on a very young 2012, how and why these wines can age so well, and why they can appeal to Bordeaux fans and snobby Francophiles like me.
That’s partly because it’s not 100% zinfandel. The blend varies year-to-year, but according to Ridge’s website the 2012 is 71% zinfandel, 19% carignane, 7% petite sirah, 2% mataro (mourvedre), and 1% alicante bouschet. The other varieties (especially the petite sirah) add a lot of tannic structure that’s hard to get in pure zinfandel.
I’m confused - I can pick this up for about $30 locally. I’ll be grabbing two next chance I get. Like Todd you hooked me with that note. Actually grabbed a bottle for my father in law for his birthday. Glad to know I made a great choice.
I hate to plug this wine (and raise the price), but a recent bottle of the 2010 Ridge Estate Chardonnay was the best $35 California wine I’ve had in years. Red or white.
A number of people have told me how great the '12 Geyserville’s are. I just can’t get myself to drink one that young! Maybe I’ll pop an 07 or something tomorrow and pretend!
I have only purchased 3 bottles of Ridge (cabs) to date and those are in storage. However, your note has prompted me to seek out some Geyserville; sounds fantastic.
At 14.4%, it’s fairly normal for Geyserville. My recollection is that most vintages, and in particular most vintages from the mid-90s to the present, which is the base of my experience with this estate, are in the 14s. I shy away from high alcohol but Zin is a wine that can carry it off, IMHO, and Draper better than most. This wine shows some alcohol richness but not too heady. There is so much going on in this wine that, in an admittedly in your face sort of way, it’s in balance. It’s a big wine, make no mistake about it. There is a time and a place in my repertoire for a well-made wine like this.
Funny enough, my favorite Ridge Geyserville ever, and the bottle that got me in to Ridge and Zin, was the 1991, which had a lower alcohol, I think in the mid-13s. Would love to try that wine again, it’s been a very long time. If anyone has a bottle, I would love to buy some or trade for it.
Cheers all.
PS. As for the commentary of this being too young - [Mike’s always busting my balls yet he posts a note on a recent 2011! ] - I’m a firm believer in trying my wines if I can before I go too deep, even with tried and true producers. Could make the difference in whether I buy 3, 6 or 12. For example, I popped the 2011 Ridge Estate Cab on Monday. Liked it, liked it a lot, but not at $45, thus will not stock up. I will be buying more of the 2012 Geezer.
I’m glad you posted this, Jeb, as I just looked at my pathetic attempt of keeping any inventory, and searching this site, and it appears that I did not buy the 2011 Geyserville yet, only the Lytton Springs. My local guy does not have it in stock, so perhaps I just overlooked it. I need to remedy that to keep some semblance of a vertical going!
There are plenty of great CA wines under $35. One way to find them is to stay away from Napa Cabs, wines scored highly by Parker, and probably most mailing lists, although the latter isn’t always a factor.
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I’ll be grabbing two next chance I get. Like Todd you hooked me with that note. Actually grabbed a bottle for my father in law for his birthday. Glad to know I made a great choice.![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
] - I’m a firm believer in trying my wines if I can before I go too deep, even with tried and true producers. Could make the difference in whether I buy 3, 6 or 12. For example, I popped the 2011 Ridge Estate Cab on Monday. Liked it, liked it a lot, but not at $45, thus will not stock up. I will be buying more of the 2012 Geezer.