Paul and Stef had a Zinfest this past weekend. They served excellent lasagne and chicken cacciatore. They also opened up at least 15 different zinfandels to taste.
I didn’t take too many notes (although I did take a pen and a little moleskine notebook) so I thought I’d write down some of the thoughts now before I forget. [btw I'm writing this on Sunday and testing out blosxom's post-dated entry "feature"] By far the favorites seemed to be the two Charter Oak Zinfandels that Paul had pulled out for the event. I’ll have to double-check my notes with Paul, Stef or Brian after vacation, but I think the two were Charter Oak Monte Rosso and Charter Oak Napa Valley. I remembered from a past dinner party at Paul&Stef’s that the Charter Oak was hard to get. The only reason I remembered that initially was that it was so popular at the past event I didn’t get to taste any. I had also written on my notes at that past event some tidbits about the winemaker and his setup. I remember it distinctly because I had mismarked it on another wine’s notes. So at this weekend’s dinner it was good to re-associate the name (correctly) and hear Paul tell Brian about the winemaker and his story. Here’s a link. Some of the other wines that Paul set out were: Cline Sonoma County Zinfandel, Copain Arrowhead Mountain(?), 3 different Rosenblum’s, Turley, the two Charter Oaks, and I think I’m missing one more. Those were set out in order from thinner to fuller? – lighter to heavier? on Paul’s Bar. There was another table with about five different Ridge Zinfandels, including the 1990 Paso Robles(?) that Brian brought. I didn’t try them all as I had to cut myself off for the drive back from SJ to SF. But I do remember seeing at least two Ridge Paso Robles labels, Brian’s 1990, and a Ridge something-something Caboose- which I assume meant late-harvest. Oh, so clever. . . [btw all the Ridge wines were good, but I didn't pay that much attention. I liked the 1990 a lot and I thought the Caboose was full.] Below are my limited notes from memory. These aren’t tasting notes, just random thoughts, like my movie reviews. The wines weren’t blind tasted and this was mostly a dinner party, so if you have problems with my comments, go screw yourself. You shouldn’t even be reading this if you want ‘serious’ wine notes – it’s a @$!$ blog, c’mon.- Cline Sonma County Zinfandel (2003?) I have a lot of this, it’s usually a great bargain. If you can try some of the other Cline Zinfandels (Big Break, Bridgehead, etc).
- Copain Arrowhead Mountain – I’m not actually sure if that’s the right name, I’ll have to double-check. I was kind of let down by this one. Ever since that dinner at Piperade I’ve been lusting after the Copain’s. So when I saw this one on the bar I was really excited. Then I realized Paul probably had the ones on the bar lined up in some kind of order. Sure enough he did. He told me that originally he had lined up the wines before opening them in the order he thought they’d be in from lightest to fullest(?). The Copain was the only one he was wrong about- he had it near the Turley, and moved it all the way down to #2. Don’t get me wrong, I still liked it, but I thought it’d be a bit better.
- The three Rosenblums – I don’t remember the names of these at all which probably meant I liked them, but not enough to pay that much attention to them. I’ll get the names and update this. I do remember the first of the three seemed like it’d be a great every-day and every-meal type of wine, and the thrid one seemed a bit more for that special type of homemade meal.
- Turley – People seemed to love or hate this one. I didn’t know anything about Turley and didn’t know it was a bit cultish. I tried it, said “meh” out loud but moved on. After I tasted a bit more, it grew on me, but I wasn’t loving it. I do remember thinking, “I guess I’d buy this for dinner”. But then I noticed the price tag was on it and I saw the price. Thanks, but no thanks.
- Charter Oak Monte Rosso and Charter Oak Napa Valley – The two favorites of the night. These are hard to get, but I think they’re worth it if you can find them- see the link above for more info.
- Kenwood Jack London (2000) – I had pulled this out for the party. Paul opened it when I was tasting some other wines and chit-chatting. From across the room I hear “Hey Kenneth, I think that wine you brought is corked.” Uh oh. Does that mean I’d get kicked out of the party? Am I off the invite list? It turns out no (for now). But the wine I brought was “off”. I didn’t think it was corked (for the record, I’ve only had two corked wines before) so Paul decanted it to let it air out so we could try it later. A guy named Wes tasted it and said it wasn’t corked but it was Brett. Who the hell is Brett? It turned out that was a new term (for me at least) and it means two things- either Kristen’s husband or a possible one-dimensional aspect of a wine on the palate(?). I haven’t googled enough, but I think this explains it more.
