3rd Annual 7 Deadly Zins - Reprise (about 14 this time)

As Ben, Estella, Dario and Maria couldn't make the first one for this year we had another go…some wines had been consumed in the interim so we went with a slightly different line up.

Lowe Zinfandel <15% Alcohol. All three had slightly pointy acidity and lightweight fruit.

• 2003 Lowe Family Wines Zinfandel Mudgee

  Australia, New South Wales, Central Ranges, Mudgee

  From Coravin. Biscuit, sweet spice, slightly leather, red plum. Juicy, spicy with oddly prickly tannins. Quite sweet plum fruit. Pleasant.

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• 2010 Lowe Family Wines Zinfandel Organic

  Australia, New South Wales, Central Ranges, Mudgee

  From Coravin. Polished cedar, sweet spice ,but also a little ripe black plums, slightly dusty, floral top note. Spicy, juicy, again that oddly prickly tannin note on the palate and the fruit is a little tart.

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• 2012 Lowe Family Wines Zinfandel Organic

  Australia, New South Wales, Central Ranges, Mudgee

  From Coravin. Polished oak, cream, slight caramel and vanilla. Strawberry and plum, toast, slight volatile acidity. On the palate it's zestily juicy, prickly tannins, the volatile note is less present here and the fruit is red hued and quite lightweight.

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Random Ridges - rather splendid stuff...

• 2011 Ridge Zinfandel Paso Robles

  USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles

  From Coravin. Biscuit, ripe plum, muted spice, slight vanilla,. On the palate it's juicy with red plum, taut tannins and feels almost off dry, spicy as well. With time it softens and broadens. Nice

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• 2012 Ridge Three Valleys

  USA, California, Sonoma County

  From Coravin. Sweet spice, perfumed almost violet notes, ripe cherry, plums chocolate. In the mouth it's juicy and ripe with cherry and plum fruit, very slight herbaceous notes and fine tannins. Nice.

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• 2013 Ridge Zinfandel East Bench

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley

  From Coravin. Spiced, muted slightly sour red plum, gamey notes, biscuit/toast, juicy but jammy fruit, still a little savoury, fine tannins. Nice.

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Ridge Lytton Springs - the 13 is a bit of an outlier in this bracket...

• 2007 Ridge Lytton Springs

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley

  From Coravin. Slightly earthy, cherry, plummy, leathery, slight savoury spice but also sweet spice here, and vanilla. In the mouth it's juicy and spicy with red berries, plums, slight leather and fine tannins. Also a little vanilla.

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• 2013 Ridge Lytton Springs

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley

  From Coravin. Far lighter than the 07 and 14, more spiced and contained. Medium minus intensity flavours of ripe cherry but more red spectrum. Tangy, more dense on the palate, red cherry again. Tight tannins. Long finish. Interesting.

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• 2014 Ridge Lytton Springs

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley

  From Coravin. Woof. Pronounced intensity aromas of ripe berries, cherries, plums, vanilla, over muted sweet spice, cream. More of the same on the palate with some biscuit.

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Geyserville - dragged out the magnum again...wasn't going to take no for an answer this time so it got popped after the tasting

• 1997 Ridge Geyserville

  USA, California, Sonoma County

  From Magnum. Leather, sour cherry, white pepper. Sweetly spicy on the palate though with red cherry, leather, black tea. Hmm

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Lowe Zinfandel >15% Alcohol

• 2009 Lowe Family Wines Zinfandel Mudgee

  Australia, New South Wales, Central Ranges, Mudgee

  From Coravin. Meaty, almost bretty, slightly dusty, cherry, juicy tight tannins, spicy with alcohol heat and slight tobacco leaf.

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• 2013 Lowe Family Wines Zinfandel Organic

  Australia, New South Wales, Central Ranges, Mudgee

  From Coravin. Slight reductive but with agitation spice and pretty plummy fruit that opens nicely, touches of cherry as well . In the mouth the wine is fresh with spiced plums and those prickly tannins - which dry things out a bit - but this is rather nice and probably the pick of the Lowe's for me.

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Australian Zins >16% Alcohol...the piggs peake is a bit of a favourite of mine I must confess...

• 2015 Cargo Road Wines Zinfandel

  Australia, New South Wales, Central Ranges, Orange

  Reductive and closed. Tight nose. Spice dominates the fruit and the alcohol is quite noticeable on the nose. In the mouth the wine has tight tannins, alcohol heat and the fruit is exceedingly muted under this.
  I took about half of the bottle home with me under argon. It opened up considerably as i took the odd glass over the next couple of days with the fruit gaining weight and revealing a plummy and black cherry quality and the tannins softened.

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• 2015 Piggs Peake Werewolf

  Australia

  Woof again, massive, jammy, plummy and black cherry fruit, vanilla, muted sweet spice. On the palate it's very alcoholic, very fruit, off dry (though that could just be the alcohol). Crikey. Zero finesse. Bit porty. Fortified.

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In the end we opened the Piggs Peake, Cargo Road, Lowe Zinfandel 2003, Ridge Geyserville 1997