Consistently an excellent early Bedrock drinker! ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
That is an interesting thought that I can test out soon. I’ve definitely fallen out of love with PS and Alicante Bouchet. Was hoping that small amounts wouldn’t matter in a blend.
If you need to rediscover a love for Zin, try Storybook Mountain. Very stately and claret-like, especially the Estate Reserve or Eastern Exposures with a little bottle age.
I can’t say there is a varietal that I don’t like anymore. I have had favorites that all of a sudden didn’t taste the same or weren’t enjoyable but there are too many factors/considerations that I would diss a varietal. My favorite Aussie fruit bombs tasted really bad when I drank them in 90 percent humidity on the east coast. And the reverse, those austere, tart, acidic Italian wines tasted great in 90 percent humidity. Variance of source, winemaker, weather are contributors.
When it comes to Zin, it has the most diverse choices to go with food or without food. Fruit forward and flabby with Mexican , clean and lean with Chinese and there are a number of Zins that scream meat on the BBQ. Zin also has that horrible aberration of White Zin that goes so well with food for those living in the southeast.
Hmm…the 2017 Ridge Lytton Springs has 15% petite syrah.
The 2012 has 21%.
But the 2014, which has been one of my favorites, has 18% ps.
Send me a bottle and I’ll give it a shot
I had a recent bottle of Port that I opened on a hot summer day, 93F out, no air conditioning, with 90% humidity and it tasted great. Different strokes I guess.
I’m surprised nobody mentioned “your tastes are maturing to Burgundy”. Isn’t that the standard response around here?
I once went to a large Zinfandel tasting in DC (a group called I think ZAP) and disliked most of the wines. I have always, however, really liked Ridge Zinfandels and in fact have enjoyed the Geyserville (my favorite) and Lytton Springs (including a 2016 a couple of weeks ago) the most. I rather like the addition of Petite Sirah and other grapes into the blend. Give the wines a complexity that I don’t find with 100% Zin generally.
So, I cannot say why you specifically did not like the wine you tasted. It could be the specific bottle. It could be it is going through a bad phase in its aging or that this vintage just did not age well. It could be that for some reason you could not taste well that particular night. It could be that you do not like Petite Sirah in your zinfandel or that you do not like Zinfandel anymore (esp. since this has not been an isolated occurrence). My suggestion is to try a few of your FAVORITE Zins and see if this is something you are finding to be more broadly the case with your favorites. If you find this to be broadly the case, there always is Burgundy!!!
Zin is now one of the few CA varietals that I drink regularly.
I’ve become an insufferable French wine snob so most CA versions of Pinot, Chard, Syrah and Cab are just too rich for me — speaking generally.
But I do like leaner Zins because no one else in the world makes them. Not counting Primitivo here …
I like Rafanelli with a few years on them best …
I was up in Dry Creek Valley tasting this past weekend (until I was evacuated) and wasn’t enjoying the Zinfandels. Go figure, since they make up a good portion of my cellar. My palate has really been liking the tastes of Grenache and Carignane lately and that is what I ended up buying a lot of this trip.
Went to France last fall and had a lot of Gigondas which is Grenache dominated. Its what I seek now more than anything. Its sort of like an elegant Zin or a big Pinot profile is how I look at it.
I’ve done ZAP once too, and it’s hard to taste through 40 + at that event because many of them are pretty stacked on body and alcohol. That said, I’d agree with the consensus Scott, maybe just take a small sabbatical and then come back and see if your palate has truly moved away from them. I continue to enjoy Zins, but I think that’s partially because I seldom have them. Current faves do include Carlisle and Limerick Lane—had been on the Ridge and Biale bandwagon, but less so these days and Bedrock has yet to truly move my needle. Rafanelli almost always.
A bit of a tanjink here, but (a little follow on Matthew’s post) what are people’s thoughts about Primitivo, which I’ve had almost none of?
Went to ZAP event in Newport Beach about ten years. I had a headache for days and didn’t drink Zin for about five years after. I drink some now but those events are drunk fests and shouLd be banned
It’s synchronicity that you posted this.
Last week, I was tasting with a friend and had a moment where I thought, “You know, there are only so many different ways a wine can taste.”
My palate was bored that night.
I have tasted one cab since, and it was good, but subtle flaws clawed at me more so than the positive attributes. (It was a 2013 Alpha Omega Las Piedras cabernet. It’s great, and my palate wasn’t off, I was just having some wine ennui.)
Perhaps I did this to myself indirectly: my kid is studying for the MCAT test and I am doing it with him. He had a moment of normal ‘kidness’ and said it felt like there was no way he would ever see it all to get ready for the test. I told him it was OK, because he will find as he preps more that there is truly only a finite amount of information they can hit him up for…and maybe that seeped into my palate!
If anybody wants to try an experiment, tell yourself “There’s only so many ways a wine can taste, there are only so many flavors a wine can have” and then see if that affects your perception of the wine.
I know mine will pass, maybe it’s some form of viniferous melancholy, or oenophilic dissipation.
I hope yours passes, as well!
Give 2017 Casa Smith Primitivo from WA a go, WA makes pretty awful Zin, but this is a very good rendition of Primitivo due to site up on Northridge Vineyard on Wahluke Slope.
I would echo earlier comments re: Bedrock and Carlisle as wineries to turn to for a “kinder, gentler” zin that’s not overripe. That said, I totally get your dilemma. I’ve got a lot of “fruit bombs”, zin or otherwise, that are languishing in my cellar as though they were inhabitants on the “Island of Misfit Toys”. They no longer get the love in our household.
That is exceedingly interesting. I wonder if there will be movement toward more AFWE and away from fruit bombs now that the Parkerilla has lost its grip on the hobby.
The shift has happened it sounds. Used to drink a lot of Pinot Noir and haven’t really opened much over the past few years in comparison to other varietals.
Wait 2 years, then pop a Ridge, Turley, Carlisle, Bedrock, Limerick Lane or any of the other top producers and you’ll probably find them enjoyable. The nice thing with Zin is it goes well with sturdy Fall/Winter foods and Spring/Summer grilled foods. For $35 you can drink some killer Zin rather than more expensive wines…
Had a '17 A Raf two nights ago - terrific!
Not sure what’s wrong with people who don’t like Zin - but I’d have it checked!
Why? I know people who are happy to take the occasional case off my hands. And now I can focus on other wines.