1995 Ridge Zinfandel Monte Bello

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  3/18/2014 - mk4316 Likes this wine: 90 Points

  • 3/17/2014 Ravenswood Monte Bello Zinfandel – 1995. I was a little concerned when I opened the wine. The last of these I had opened was about 8 years ago and this was the last bottle of a great case of wine. A zin lasting 19 years is sometimes/often a bit dicey. When I opened it, the cork broke in the lower ¼ region and could not be retrieved – so it was pushed down into the bottle. I made the decision then to decant – had not wanted to do that as it would tend to speed up the oxidation process and accelerate the loss of fruit remaining. I have tried to taste these older wines in the bottle with care to determine how long they are lasting. With that said, I had a decanted 19 year old zin. The color was a deep purple with little visible signs of age – a little around the edges. The nose was big out of the shoot – typical zin stuff. In the mouth, the peppery, deep berry flavor was full, strong and straight forward – well balanced. This continued for about 3 hours until a hint of metallic overtones began to creep in which disappated after two more hours. After 5 hours the wine was tasting like a mature, full bodied and big zin. After 8 hours about the same with the expected decrease in the nose and less fruit. But the tannins were fairly sweet. After 20 hours the nose was only a suggestion, but the tannins were still sweet and not unpleasant. It would likely have been much different if I had not decanted at the start. All in all, I was pleased and, in some fashion, surprised at how long the zin lasted. The curious aspect of the wine was the metallic overtones that came in and then disappeared.

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