2006 Carlisle Sonoma County Zinfandel

When it comes to QPR in wine, you'd be hard pressed to come up with better wine than what Carlisle has to offer, across the board. In fact, for the 2006 release of this wine, I believe that they even rolled back the price, which is virtually unheard of in this day and age. It's too bad for the average consumer that Carlisle wines are somewhat scarce and the wait time to buy directly from the winery is a few years at the least, but the savvy shopper can usually find a few of these wines scattered amongst select retail shops in major cities. If you do find them, I'd advise you to snag them quickly, because they don't last too long on the shelves.

The first vintage of Carlisle was 5 gallons of Zinfandel, made in owner Mike Officer's kitchen in the late 1990's. Today, that number has grown to around 2500 cases of various Zinfandel and Syrah blends and single vineyard bottlings from some of the best vineyards in Sonoma. This particular blend comes from about 6 different vineyards in Sonoma and has a dollop of Petite Sirah and Alicante thrown in which definitely makes things interesting. I'm completely guessing here since I have no clue what the initial blend tasted like or the reasoning behing the Petite Sirah addition, but I feel like I could have done without it. Petite Sirah seems to have such an overwhelming flavor profile and tannic structure that for my palate, and what I look for in Zinfandel, it's not needed. Even though that thought comes to mind, I'm going to believe the winemakers judgement that it does in fact improve the blend. Regardless, this wine is a star today on top of being a screaming bargain. It makes me ecstatic that I have a handful of them tucked away, because I won't touch any more for another year, at least.

Tasting Notes:
Dark, almost inky black color with reddish purple highlights towards the rim with a nose that oozes ripe cherries, plum, and raspberry dusted with black pepper as well as brambly spices. As the nose indicated, the palate holds gobs of fruit, balanced with adequate acidity and iron clad tannins that clamp down on the spicy finish. This is not a Zinfandel for early consumption, and needs at least another year in the cellar in my opinion. It was much better on day 2, which might indicate it has a long life ahead of it. A wine that will reward patience.

Price: About $20

Score: 90-91

Alcohol: 14.9%

Cases Produced:857
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2004 Paraduxx Napa Valley Red Wine

For the past few weeks I've been on a bit of a Duckhorn kick and I have to say it's been great and doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon considering I have an appointment at one of the Duckhorn vineyards in about a week. I love this wine. I had it the other night and it's probably my favorite out of the various bottles I've had recently. The 2004 Paraduxx is composed of 65% Zinfandel, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 7% Merlot. It was picked a bit early for a harvest in Napa (Aug) and aged 18 months in oak (65% American/ 35% French). There is definitely an explosion of fruit on the nose - cherry, raspberry and a hint of vanilla. A little bit of heat on the nose. In the glass it's a very dark, inky wine with beautiful scarlet at the rim. Very intense in the mouth, very velvety and smooth with a nice finish. After some time in the glass I could taste more oak but it wasn't overly oaked by any means. It's an interesting blend and right up my alley. I love jammy Zins and together with the complexity and structure of Cabernet it's a beautiful thing. This is a wine meant to be drunk young or within a few years of release. After 1 glass I had this wine with a nice chopped up block of Gruyere cheese and it wasn't a perfect pairing but they complimented each other very nicely. This wine will hold a nice memory of relaxing in front of a great fire on a beautiful Fall evening with delicious wine and cheese. I'm very excited to try the 2005 in a week or so and had to hold myself back from buying it at my local shop last Friday. Seek this wine out.

Score: 9/ 10

Price: $40 Continued...

2005 Four Vines "Maverick" Zinfandel

Paso Robles is next on my list of wine producing regions to visit and when I do one of the wineries I want to visit is Four Vines. This is what I like to see in the attitudes of California winemakers. These people are making wines FUN - Snobbery and pretentiousness has been replaced with Pirates, Bikers, and "Zinbitches" (I'm waiting for Ninja's). These guys focus on appelation specific wines, old vine Zins and un-oaked Chardonnay. I LOVE me some old vine Zin, it's one of my favorite things to drink and I'm pretty curious about the un-oaked Chardonnay as well. That review will be coming soon. The head honchos of the Four Vines family are Christian, Susan & Bill and together they make some kick ass wine and bring some great attitudes to winemaking. Christian began as a chef in Boston and his love for wine developed from there. He and his partner, Susan Mahler, moved from San Francisco to Paso Robles in 1990 and set up shop. Bill Grant is a childhood friend of Christian’s and joined the team in 2002.

The 2005 "Maverick" Zin comes from the 100-plus-year old vines of the original Grandpere Vineyard, along with the 40- year old vines of The Deaver and Linstead Vineyards. Nice ruby color in the glass. The nose is quite spicy and fruity with a hint of oak. Rolling this around in my mouth although jammy, it wasn't quite the fruit bomb I was expecting. Nicely balanced, blackberries were dancing - not exploding in my mouth with a spicy finish. Finish seemed a little short but still very good. If I'd have hit the brakes I think this wine would have flew right by. I'm going to rate this wine a 88, because at the $20 price point there are other Zins I would rather drink. If this was a few bucks cheaper I would buy a case or two as a house wine for the summer/ fall. I love the idea, style, and direction of this wine and am excited to try the other zins and syrahs Four Vines offers. Talk to me Goose.

Score: 88

Price: $20 Continued...