2008 Ravenswood Teldeschi Zinfandel

Oh how I love a good Zin, and this week has been a good week for them!  Earlier in the week our monthly wine club selection was a good Zin, and today I received a delivery of 5 bottles of 2008 Ravenswood Teldeschi Zin from wineshopper.com!  So tonight I will enjoy a bottle.

I have a long history with Ravenswood, when I was a sell side analyst, we had our monthly "dog 'n' pony" show and one time in 2000 we met with Ravenswood, one of the few publicly traded wineries.  And after the presentation by their CEO and CFO, they opened up a case of their wares for us to try, mostly reds mind you, which suited me just fine.  Needless to say, we picked up research coverage, but I was not the analyst in charge, yet I still maintained a fondness in my heart for Ravenswood, with their signature tagline "NO WIMPY WINES!" Well, eventually they were bought out, so the investment side worked well, but even afterwards, they have maintained and even expanded their great wines, moving from their own label to specialty single vineyard labels like the one I am trying tonight.

The 2008 Ravenswood Teldeschi Zinfandel comes from a great family vineyard run by the Teldeschi family and focusing on growing Zin, along with petite syrah and carignane, which are often blended with this wine.  The wine expresses everything I expect in a great Zin, the nose is full of bright fruit, blackberry, cherry, black currant, along with a wonderful hint of cedar and tobacco.  The color is an inky, dark purple that suggest the strength of the wine and the smoothness of the tannins.  On the palate it's a simply delicious and vibrant explosion of fruit, followed by a long, smooth, dry finish that is so characteristic of the Zins of the Dry Creek Valley in the Sonoma Valley.  So wonderful, it would pair well with a grilled steak, seared tuna with a wasabi glaze, or a simple Italian dish, like the sausage with onions and multi-colored peppers I am enjoying it with tonight!   Keep in mind also, this is a young wine, and although I treated myself tonight, the remaining bottles will likely be cellared for at least a few years to mature.

Overall, this wine is a little expensive, with a usual price around $35, but I got a great deal on this for only $21, and for that price I rate this a solid 8.5 to 9.0!  There are so many other great wines from Ravenswood I'd encourage you to try, from their basic everyday table reds for $8-9 to their exclusive single vineyard bottlings, they are all high quality, great wines that have never disappointed me!  Cin Cin!

Celebrate #CabernetDay!

Well, hard to believe it's been a year, but it's September 1st and #CabernetDay once again!  So tonight I am celebrating (!) with a bottle of 2007 Wine Spots Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, after all, I heard somewhere that Napa Valley makes good cabs, and 2007 was a pretty good year! =)

I can't remember where I got this bottle, but in looking it up on the internet, it apparently was a pretty pricey bottle, though I can't imagine I paid that much for it.  Wine Spots is interesting in that rather than a single vineyard, they go to various spots known for great wines and work with local producers to come up with a wine that vividly illustrates what makes that spot great for wine, hence the Wine Spot!  Well lucky for me, this particular bottle seeks to show the best of Napa Valley in a bottle of Cab, perfect for #CabernetDay!This wine was made with a blend of grape sourced from acclaimed sub-regions including Rutherford and Oakville, so it should be pretty good right?

Well, I won't leave you in suspense any longer, it is indeed VERY good!  The nose is an interesting combination of lush fruit, leather and a hint of a light floral scent.  The mouthfeel is big and luscious, with lots of velvety tannins for a long finish.  The taste bursts forth with blackberry and cherry, with a woodsy sort of background, and despite the early fruit, the wine is actually quite dry, really showing the greatness of Napa Valley Cabs.  This wine would be a perfect match for grilled steak, or some rich barbecue as we approach the last holiday of summer, though tonight I'm enjoying it with some spicy chorizo and bean tacos!  I can't remember how much this one cost, but ignoring price I would rate this one a solid 8.5, a great Napa Cap to enjoy anytime!

A new cellar!

Ok, so this post is only tangentially about wine, but last Friday night I finally broke down and bought a wine cooler (and no, not the classic Bartles & Jaymes fuzzy navel)!  A friend at work told me that the local Lowe's was having a clearance on a Frigidaire 34-bottle wine cooler for only $171, so I had to do it!  I got there after work on Friday and of course saw the last one with my friend's name taped to it, but there was still the display model, so a little negotiation and an additional 15% discount later and I drove home with my new fridge!  Here is the standard image, since I haven't had time to take a picture of mine yet:

It's a nice little unit, but there are certainly some quirks to be aware of, particularly if like me, this is your first wine cooler.  This particular model did not have the digital temperature settings (I highly recommend them as I think it would make operating a lot easier!) so I had to experiment with the settings which went from "Min" to "Max."  So I had to experiement with a bottle of wine I wasn't afraid to ruin, well maybe a few basic bottles of red just to see how they did.

I started with the "recommended" setting, but that ended up chilling the wine way too much, a cabernet served at 50 degrees is just plain wrong!  So I adjusted all weekend until I got to the minumum setting, and that turned out to be the right one, cooling to a nice 62-64 degrees.  Once the temperature was settled, I stocked the cooler with some of my older wines, where temperature control is much more important, and surprisingly enough, I managed to fill up the fridge!  Of course this freed up a lot more space in my usual cellar, the hall closet, so now I have no worries about stroring wine for the moment.  But you know how that is, building it and they will come, so I expect in a month or two the closet will again be at capacity!

In the meantime, a small fridge is an inexpensive method to long-term, safe storage of wines with consistent temperature and humidity, if like me, you don't live in a place with a cool, dark basement for wine storage.