Okay, because I wanted my bargain Rosenblum zinfandel to have every opportunity to show at its best, we did have a nice steak dinner. You know, it’s sort of like putting on your Sunday best when you’re trying to make a good impression. If the wine showed poorly, I didn’t want to think it was because I didn’t give it my best shot. So I chose the Sonoma Valley Maggie’s Reserve to go with the grilled T-Bones and Susie brought sauteed mushrooms. The dinner was delicious and the wine was a good complement although it quickly became apparent that most of the fruit was gone. No question that there was plenty of sharp pepper and spice and maybe a hint of licorice.(The label said a burst of eucalpytus but none of us detected any.) Not bad, but I do like fruit in my zinfandel. However, as it opened up in the glass, it became more mellow. It certainly did complement… Read More »
The 3 Rs of Zinfandel
It was several years ago that a wine buyer for a market told me I could not go wrong with zinfandel if I stuck to the Three R’s: Ridge, Ravenswood and Rosenblum. I think there might be a 4th R and there are many excellent zinfandels that don’t start with R — but it was a handy, quick guide. I thought of that a couple of weeks ago at the wine tasting at Marche Bacchus. We were tasting wines from Hahn Winery in the Santa Lucia Highlands. The Santa Lucia AVA is on the backside of the mountains that face Monterey Bay. I’ve been there several times and loved the Hahn tasting room and always ended up buying a couple of bottles. In fact, just the night before I had opened a Hahn Syrah with my friend Susan. So at Marche Bacchus, we were listening to the merits of the various wines when… Read More »
