1975 Ridge Geyserville Zinfandel – Late Picked – 35 years after bottling – still great.

1975 Ridge Geyserville Zinfandel  
He says:  The general belief in the wine world is that zinfandel is a grape that doesn’t improve with age. Most people believe that zins should be enjoyed when they’re released. Well my experiences over three decades have been that well-made zins can be very age worthy, and they can change and improve with additional time in the bottle.

My father, Mel, was a member of Ridge Vineyard’s ATP program for about 30 years, so over that time he amassed a large collection of Ridge zins. We continue to enjoy them 10, 20, 30 years later. A few have gone over the hill – usually from lesser quality vintages. But many are truly outstanding and would rival a fine cabernet or bordeaux blend.

Which brings us to write about the 1975 Ridge Geyserville Zinfandel that we had recently to celebrate my mother’s birthday. This wine was made from late-picked grapes from the hillside Trentadue Ranch vineyard in Sonoma County.

According to the label comments by winemaker Paul Draper, 1975 was an unusually cool year (don’t get much of those anymore!), so they let the grapes ripen beyond full maturity. Grapes were harvested at 24% brix by weight, and the wine had .21% residual sugar when it was bottled in October 1977.

We kept this baby in a wine locker much of it’s life, and uncorked it over 35 years later! So it’s no wonder that it took about an hour after we decanted it for the wine to open. But when it did, it was really spectacular. It was soft and supple with lovely boysenberry and plum fruit flavors and a touch of spice.

The heavy tannins had softened considerably, but were still present a bit. And there was a nice amount of acid to balance everything. Quite simply, this was a delicious, elegant wine that really matured into a beauty. I rated it an outstanding 18!

And the best news is, we have two more still in the locker!

1974 Sonoma Vineyards Alexander’s Crown Cabernet Sauvignon

1974 Sonoma Vineyards Alexader's Crown Cabernet Sauvignon

1974 Sonoma Vineyards Alexander’s Crown Cabernet Sauvignon.
He said: My parents bought this wine in 1977, and it’s been in my father’s wine locker for almost 34 years. We decided to open up one of the bottles to see if the wine was still good.

This wine holds a very special place in California wine making history. It is the first single vineyard cabernet from Sonoma Valley. According to the back label, the Alexander’s Crown vineyard is a 61-acre vineyard located on a promontory above the Alexander Valley.

The winemaker was Rodney Strong, a major pioneer in the Sonoma winemaking world.  Sonoma Vineyards later became Rodney Strong Vineyards. Rodney Strong, now owned by Tom Klein, still produces an Alexander’s Crown single vineyard cab.

You can see the first vintage of Alexander’s Crown charted on this timeline on the Rodney Strong website.  http://bit.ly/AlexandersCrown

Rodney’s notes on the label and note card are very interesting. For one, he says the grapes were harvested at 24.2 brix on November 3rd, which is very late. Then he apologizes for the wine being high alcohol at 13.7%, which would be considered low nowadays. He also said the wine could age for 20 years if you had the patience. Well, we were super patient, letting it sit for 36 years!

And now for the tasting notes:
He said: I had some doubts at first when I uncorked the wine. It had a little off smell and tasted a bit acidic, but the color was fairly red and I thought it was just a bit tight. After about 10 minutes, the wine started opening up and becoming more approachable. After being open an hour, the wine really showed its stuff. It had great cherry flavors and the balance was terrific. This turned into a tremendous bottle of wine. I gave it an excellent score of 17. The bottle had a lot of sediment.

She said: I don’t know how I know this, but I would say this has structure. You were so worth the wait, you big strong man-wine.

P.S.  She says:  I went peeking into to Barry’s father’s wine notes to see what Mel might have had to say about Sonoma Vineyard’s Alexander’s Crown.  And here’s what I found.  Mel tasted and purchased the wine in August of 1977.   Mel wrote:  Fruity, smooth, lots of TANNIN, BEAUTIFUL

Mel kept an inventory of his wines on 3×5 cards and stored them in a little tin box.    He bought two cases of ’74 Alexander’s Crown (back when cases were 12 bottles). Each bottle cost $6.50  Only two bottles were marked off as being opened.  Let me see if I can do that math 24 bottles – 3 bottles minus not so perfect inventory keeping = still a whole lotta good wine left!  Of course there’s no way each bottle will be perfect, but this one was and that’s a good sign.   Enjoy the hand written notes!

Barry's father's handwritten notes on 1974 Sonoma Vineyards Alexander's Crown Cabernet Sauvignon

You can view additional, higher quality photos of the hang-tag, the bottle and Barry’s father’s wine notes on our Flickr page: http://bit.ly/BarrysentialsPhotos

Served with: A hearty homemade stew on a rainy and cold Saturday night.

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Murphy Goode “Really Goode Job” and Debbie Meyer Gore

HE and SHE both say, this is a perfect match.  Our good friend Debbie Meyer Gore has applied for the “Really Goode Job” at Murphy Goode Wines… (6 months promoting their wines & winery via social networking and other stuff.)

Debbie’s cook book “Good Friends Great Tastes” has been published and re-published more times than I can count.  She is a natural, friendly, super-marketer and loves food and wine.  She’s been feasting, cooking and writing about food & wine for 9 years.  If you have a second to vote for her at this link, please do… Thank you!

Vote for Debbie Meyer Gore Right Here For those of you doing the math – I’ve known her for 9 years, we met when we were both 20 years old so yes, we are just 29.  Still.