#wine1percent

I feel like this wine is ever so slightly corked. I know I know I know there are those of you reading this who believe there’s no such thing as slightly corked but, I do. And anyone who has dranken wine with me know I am the FIRST person to call a wine corked. But this wine seems beautiful on all areas but just keeps popping this odd vague nuance in the nose that feels like it’s possibly slightly…

Via the SCM comes this beautiful Lodi Zin from a winery I don’t *think* was pre-prohibition, but definitely pre-war. And the throwback label is extra justice. But the real throwback for drinkers is the “13-9” on the label. Those days have long flown, and one of tthe main reasons I–and many others–drink so little Zin these days. 10YO and barely hitting stride, this bottle offers potential to rival…

This is about as perfect of a wine as one could hope for… considering. Bricking a bit, but neither an explosion of concentrated fruit or a pillar of tertiary. It’s kinda light and thin, actually–and I know shallow minds who read will immediately be turned off. But I mean it in the best possibly way. And those who read *light and thin* into an aged Cabernet review as a negative need to go away and…

Spent a couple hours this morning on a very informative zoom with the vigneron from this place and although I had opened their two least expensive and most-distributed wines the past week, had not really acclimated myself with what was in the rest of the care-package. Sure enough, there’s a 100% Merlot in there and lord knows I love myself some Italian Merlot (and we’re not talking super-Tuscan…

Gorgeous clear rose–barely any garnet. A most closed-in nose: a little kinda latexy vague fruit but that’s it. NOT a glorious wine to smell and I offer three possibilities: a) that’s just this wine b) it *might* develope a bit more with air or c) it is bruised from traveling. While ‘c’ is impossible to prove, a combination of A and B seem to be the crowd’s opinion, as delicate nuances *did*…

A ripe, luscious wine embodying everything a small number of Napa producers at 3X the price dream for and capturing it effortlessly while still managing glorious balance. Deep, impenetrable ruby in the glass, a fair bit of sediment, a nose greasy with gravel roads and pond-water algae while dark cherry plumps and spreads its legs for enjoyment. Svelte and polished while only barely slutty:…

At the time I bought these, they were a bit of an oddity. Relatively unknown winery–known as pretty much a zin & blend house–down in the then-new tin city by the river in Healdsburg. They didn’t make cab every year and I had never visited. I found a few bottles at Tip Top Liquor by the railroad tracks headed out Dry Creek Valley on sale and gave it a try. HOLY WOW. Went back and cleaned out the…

Found a little satellite in the cellar… Yeah, it should have been dranken sooner, but so many wines–so little time. Heavy garnet brick in the glass, considerable bottle-funk blowing off easily to sharp spirit of equally sharp fruit, muddled down a bit into something I suppose could be called “tertiary”. Sharp again in the mouth, a spritely haze over-shadowing what remaining fruit exists. Big…