Community Tasting Notes 8

• malbrecht wrote: 91 points

  October 23, 2021 - This was a really unique experience, and although I have tried some of the wines in and around Ramona, east of San Diego, this is my first experience with a wine made from grapes grown in Mexico.
  
  It opens with brambly and jammy fruit featuring boysenberry and blackberry. It's a little syrupy in the mid-palate before transitioning to a back end that I can only describe as peppery, dusty, manzanita scrub, with a little smoked meat thrown in. I assume this is the effect of the terrior.
  
  In any event, if one was expecting the usual northern California Zin, this might be a bit off-putting. But this would be perfect if one was having dinner around a campfire in a wash in Glamis paired with carne asada. A very interesting experience and a first for me. Thanks for sharing, Scott.

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• GrapeScott wrote: 90 points

  October 23, 2021 - I coravin'ed a few glasses earlier in the week and brought the remaining half bottle to Mike and Anne's, as Mike was roasting some pheasants and I thought this would hold up to those hearty flavors. It's a unique brand of zinfandel, with desert scrub-brush, almost mesquite like aromas. It has a dense and viscous mouthfeel, with dusty, peppery black fruit flavors, almost like a Howell Mountain zin. Even at 17 years of age, it maintains a lovely brambly berry fruit profile, and despite its 16+% ABV, there is no trace of heat in this wine. I never tried this in its youth, but it is aging very well indeed.

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• spc wrote: 92 points

  April 5, 2010 - Just drank my last bottle. It was better than the first. More integrated, less alcohol burn (none actually) and dry, silky (yes) tannins.

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• jfkwines wrote: 87 points

  March 7, 2010 - A drinkable wine that doesn't taste like a zin. Hints of strawberry lemonade and light earthiness lead to a dry wine that leads me to believe the end drink by date is a little early here. Given the price of admission, not sure it was worth it.

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• Junior wrote:

  June 20, 2008 - If I have a home away from the DC row house I live in with two dogs, two babies, and a beautiful woman, it's a dusty, gray-brown place where the sun sets hot in the west over dry scrub and I am always alone. And that's why I bought this wine. I love the southwestern deserts--from the Baja, whence this wine, to the high basins to the white hot frying pans near the border--and I love the idea of wine grown from that beautiful, unforgiving country. I opened this wine as I prepared a classic California dish--Santa Maria barbeque (note, not actually barbeque--not indirect heat), a tri-tip cooked over a smokey grill. I knew this meal cried out for a great Syrah or Zinfandel and I've wanted to try this.
  
  Opened to opulent, plummy fruit. The burn at the back of the throat is bearable, but just--the fruit is so big. Tannins? What tannins? This wine is hot and spicy and smokey, sun-baked. Drunk in the wrong situation, it sags, like you do when your radiator pops on I-8 in Imperial County in the summertime. With the charred meat, it shines, marrying wonderfully with blood and smoke. The alcohol burn fades; the Zinfandel fruit and spice come into balance.
  
  This is not my ideal wine. Not even my ideal Zinfandel (see Lamborn and others like it), but it complemented my food and, even better, prompted, as wine should, a lovely response, reminding me of things and places I care about.

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Wine Definition

• Vintage 2004
• Type Red
• Producer Turley
• Varietal Zinfandel
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard Rancho Escondido
• Country Mexico
• Region Baja California
• SubRegion n/a
• Appellation n/a

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 1 (1%)
• In Cellars 65 (47%)
• Consumed 71 (52%)

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