Wine Blogging Wednesday #60: I've Zinned -- Neyer's Vineyards 2000 Pato Vineyard Zinfandel

By Lenn Thompson, Founder and Editor-in-Chief

I've taken an unintentional hiatus from Wine Blogging Wednesday the last couple of months, and for that I'm a little ashamed (but only a bit). Sometimes I get busy, okay? Anyway...

For those of you who don't know what WBW is, it's a monthly virtual wine tasting project that I founded several years go. Each month, a wine blogger chooses a theme and bloggers (and non-bloggers) buy/taste a wine that fits the theme and post about it, often on the second Wednesday of the month.

This month's edition, hosted by Megan of Wannabe Wino (who is a huge wino by the way, not a wannabe), is themed "I Have Zinned" and features, you guessed it, zinfandel.

I know that there are plenty of people out there who think I ONLY drink New York wines, but that's a clear misconception. Sure, I drink them a lot and I think it's important to drink local, but there are some grapes and wines that just don't work well in New York -- zin being one of them.

I love zinfandel, at least partly because it's just so different from most of the local wines I drink. They are big, powerful (both in flavor and alcohol) and are really just in-your-face wines. There's a lot of crappy $10 zin out there though, so be careful.

I almost missed out on this edition of WBW. I went down into my cellar to pull a bottle, thinking that I had some down there. No, I didn't (save some samples a winery sent me and I don't use those for WBW if I can avoid it). So, I drove up the road to the nearest wine shop, a shop that usually has some interesting wines and even some older vintages (though they are usually stored upright, so I tend to avoid them).

Anyway, I picked up this Neyer's Vineyards 2000 Pato Vineyard Zinfandel for $33.

I think that conventional wisdom is that zinfandel doesn't age all that well, but I thought it'd be interesting to see how this wine was at age 9.

In a word: tired.

There was still a bit of fruit here -- strawberry and raspberry, but it was barely holding on, slipping into a cavern that was clove-y and spicy (good) but also very earthy in a dusty, not-so-good way. There an interesting brown sugar component and some faint meatiness, but without fruit to balance it, the alcohol pokes through pretty signifcantly on the finish too. 

I'd like to get my hands on a more recent vintage of this wine, though. I don't have a lot of experience with older zin, but it seems to me like this wine was either stored improperly (see above) or is just past peak.

So thanks to Megan for hosting. Next time I'll make sure that I have my wine picked out further ahead of time, so I'm not left at the mercy of the nearest shop.

Comments

[Christopher Watkins]

Hiya Lenn!

Two quick comments: 1) Just tasted a 1978 Paso Robles Zin from Ridge recently, still pouring beautifully, albeit fully mature. Also, tasted a Geyerville Zin vertical not too long back, with offerings dating to as early as 1992, through 2003, and not a one was tired yet. So "conventional wisdom" be damned ...

2) Oddly enough, I just tried a Ridge wine from the Pato vineyards just this Monday (one of only two vintages where we worked with that vineyards); a Mataro, actually, from 2003. It was beautiful, unique, and ready to drink ...

[Lenn Thompson]

Mr. Watkins! Always a pleasure to know that you're still keeping an eye on things back here on the east coast.

I would love to get my hands on some of those old Ridge wines...apparently I need to bring Nena out your way one of these days.

As I alluded to in the post...this wine was likely store upright for the past several years in a shop, so anything but ideal temperature and humidity.

Hope all is well with the family...

[Sonadora]

I'm with Christopher. The older Ridges are divine. I have some older (thought not 2000) Zins hanging around. I opened an '03 for WBW and on night one, it wasn't knocking me over, but on night two it seemed beautiful.

Thanks for making the extra effort to participate!

[Bryan]

Drank some Ridge Zins last year in Miami, 92 Monte Bello, 92 Geyserville and 91 Lytton Springs.

All exceptional, chocolaty delicious!

[Christopher Watkins]

Well greetings all, and thanks for the Ridge wine love, it's nice to see. I rather happen to of course be a fan! And yes indeed Mr. Lenn, I most definitely keep tabs on y'all back East; in fact, I got myself engaged in quite a few interestings strings on your site here a couple weeks back, where were you, laddy?

CW

[jim]

I feel like chiming in on one of my favorite subjects: I've always been a huge Ridge fan. The 81, 82, 83, 84 string of vintages from Ridge helped me to cut my teeth on Zinfandels. Had the last 81 just about 8 or 9 years ago, and it was hanging on.

That said, I've had 10 disappointing older Zins for every 1 that made it to maturity (however you define 'maturity'.)

Aging Zinfandel is to rob it of what it does best - be fruity. I'm not saying it can't be done (e.g. Joe Swann, Ravenswood Monte Rosso, Renwood Grandpere) but I don't think it should be expected that eight year old Zin should be in top form (especially a low acid type like this one.)

And using Ridge as the benchmark is like using Shakespeare as your benchmark for poets!