"Smoking Guns"

First and foremost:

I am happy that all of my La Cañada wine friends

were not majorly affected by the fires.

My prayers go out to those people who were.

Oh my! This is probably why Zinfandel ranks low on my list of grape varietals. Waking up this morning was not easy as the high levels of alcohol in these wines definitely made that hard to do. I am still having flash backs of raspberry, blackberry, jam, smoke, pepper, wood and tobacco. Overall it was a very interesting wine tasting as so many different styles of Zinfandel's were represented.

I pat myself on the back for suggesting the theme.

Thirteen Zinfandel's plus one bad ass Cabernet. Prices ranging from $45.00 to $7.00 per bottle. Every area in California was represented including a winemaker himself pouring his own wine. A clear winner emerged. Rosenblum 2003 "Rockpile" at $23.00 per bottle. This wine was my clear winner as well. It had the right amounts of blackberry, raspberry fruit that were not overwhelming with small hints of wood, pepper and spice to balance the wine out perfectly. A great price at $23.00 per bottle. Good Job Greg! 2 out of the 3 tastings with the winner is pretty darn good.

My props go out to our homemade wine as well. Although Tom Pietzman gave the lowest score of all the tasters to his own wine at 72 points. I gave his Pietzman Family Zinfandel 92 points which was my second highest total of the night. This is what makes tasting wines blind so much fun. The Pietzman Zinfandel again had good combinations of fruit with a balance of spice which made it very drinkable. At a cost of $7.00 per bottle to produce this wine, I only wish more Zinfandel's hovered in this price range. I would probably drink a whole lot more of them.

I also pat myself on the back for understanding the losing wine. I can not give it to my good friend Jon with his 20 year old Caymus zinfandel. That just isn't fair! The real losing wine which was a mess of tree bark and tobacco gone mad that even after 2 hours of decanting as a friend of mine suggested that I do, didn't help the wine at all. Yep that is right! I brought the losing wine again. Outpost-Howell mountain. I am just happy that almost everybody also caught on to how flawed this wine is. I recognized the wine right away in the line up, because I still can't get that wine out of my head from the very first time I tasted it 2 years ago. Time warp back 15 years and I bet Caymus fairs much better against Outpost.

So let us never EVER do this again!!! 13 high octane, smoky, fruit forward Zinfandel's make you yell and laugh a bit louder than usual. They also give you a headache that only large amounts of Aspirin can cure. The varietal should only be consumed with large amounts of food. BBQ beef brisket would be my preference!

Till our next meeting!

Cheers!

PS
I think I am becoming a Mark Herold groupie as well Jon. That was one bad ass Cabernet.