2004 Turley Zinfandel Duarte

Community Tasting Notes (54) Avg Score: 91.0 points

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  2/23/2024 - Tim Heaton Likes this wine:

  Decanted for sediment and returned to bottle. VG with/after 1hr air. fresh, medium body, red fruits, elegant and nicely complex. Thru 2027. 13,0% abv. highly recommended

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  6/4/2022 - Peech Likes this wine: 94 Points

  drank 1 hour and 15 minutes after decanting. Very open now, a little pungent like rubber, and still kinda sharp and alcoholic on the nose. A little jammy, very nice nose of bacon and grilled meats, very fragrant, with tons of cassis and blackcurrant. Kinda toasty and almost got coffee notes. Very smooth on the palate. Drinking very well but would have been better if the piercing alcohol was toned down.

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  7/26/2020 - alohashirt Likes this wine: 93 Points

  So about a year ago I had an infatuation with Zinfandel. Like a summer romance, it burned fiercely for a couple of months, then just as quickly it was gone. Unlike a summer romance, I had bought a bunch of Zins on allocation, and as they arrived, in dribs and drabs, I shoved them in my wine rack and tried to ignore them.
  
  Tonight I was looking through the 2018 and 2017 Zins and noticed this 2004 bottle. I have no idea when, where or how I bought it. I thought that Zinfandels don't age. There are ten cellartracker tasting notes from 2010 that say this wine is past its prime. Ten years after that I opened this bottle with low expectations...
  
  The cork came out intact and looked perfect. The wine is a deep crimson color, with hint of bricks at the edges. Big raspberry fruit and tomato leaves or capsicum on the nose. On the palate - holy sh1t this tastes good, luscious raspberry and strawberry fruit with soft long sweet finish, enough acidity, no heat, no aftertaste. This doesn't really taste like anything else I can think of - maybe a Grenache with Ribena blackcurrant cordial stirred in? It tastes a bit more like fruit juice than wine - but not in a bad way. There's none of the horrible artificial confected taste that some cheaper Zinfandels have. Went well with a vietnamese beef and noodle dish, could be enjoyed on its own.
  
  This is a beautiful wine that doesn't remotely taste past it's prime. So what to make of this? Can wine rejuvenate itself? Did I just get a bottle that had been beautifully stored? I have no answer. And I still have all these 2018 Zinfandels - should I wait a decade before opening them?
  
  One thing I can say - if you get a chance to buy a 2004 bottle of Turley's Duarte you should pounce on it.

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  11/11/2019 - whudock Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Probably the best Zin I have experienced. Still lots of strong cherry and strawberry fruit, spice and pine notes. What is surprising is the earth, mushroom, leather and bacon notes, the incredibly long finish and the way each sip was a new experience.

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  12/25/2016 - Orcadian wrote: 93 Points

  We drank this wine with pigeon breasts pan-fried with garlic and juniper berry, plus roasted root vegetables. And it was delicious: deep ruby with a full, fruity bouquet and tasting of black pepper and black summer fruits. It was pleasantly dry, the hint of sweetness perfectly balanced by a light tannic edge and the alcoholic bite typical of Zinfandel. (The Turley is 15% abv.)
  
  For information, the wine did not stand up well to blue cheeses - but nor would one expect it to.

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