4/4/2023 - Mark1npt Likes this wine:

1st bottle, just had to dip into the '21s that recently arrived. This vintage takes me back to the classic Pesenti vintages of old. Young, but clean black zin fruit with some cedar notes and a zesty white pepper spicebox and cinnamon on the ending. Zin Life is really good drinking this one!

4/7/2023 - Ex-Ray Likes this wine:

For my taste, as great as zinfandel can be! We go back and forth between Dusi and Ueberroth for our favorite zins. There can be bottle variation but this one has it all. The color is dark purple and opaque. Extremely viscous, with very slow "legs". Powerful aromas of predominantly raspberries, with some cherries and blackberries mixed in. Big fruity flavors to match, but remarkably balanced, with tannin and acidity present but well hidden behind the fruit. Some sweetness in the flavors, which carries through to an incredibly long aftertaste. Despite its high alcohol, it does not come through as being too hot. Very drinkable now. Interestingly, I would have rated it 96 the first night but it opened up fully the second night to earn my 100. I plan to drink our five other bottles in the next year.
Ric

12/3/2022 - Mark1npt Likes this wine:

Pnp'd with friends who brought over pizzas for dinner so we could catch up on months of activity.....it's a pretty basic offering from the Turley stable. This used to be a fav of mine but about 3 years or so ago, it started coming across as younger fruit, less complexity, etc. This nose is basic zin, there's a chalky component to the palate with mild tannins, typical spicy zin fruit but it's all very basic. The acidity and the alc makes it seem just a tad 'hot'. Not sure why, but this one just doesn't float my boat like it used to......

12/4/2022 - Mark1npt Likes this wine:

Just another classic Pesenti! Pnp'd during the Eagles/Titans game and enjoyed with Rotel, dogs and chips. Just a great NFL day combo! Absolutely predictable and dependable in what it provides. QPR is off the charts. I'm getting to the point where I may just order a bazillion of these with every allocation........

3/26/2020 - Mbergymann Likes this wine:

Simply delicious. First of the "Champ" I've had from the Dehlinger's selection of Pinots. Similar to the Renatus, but no surprise, holds some of the complexity of the Altamont. Drinks great now and will be prime for 2 years. My favorite of the Dehlinger Pinots (Altamont, Goldridge, Renatus). Worth the extra money if you can secure in the future.

5/27/2021 - cultdrinker wrote:

Turley... Zinfandel. Need I say more.

Smell the nose and you would think you are in heaven. So many distinct deep pronounced jammy fruits and spices. Taste it and you would bet the ranch you were in heaven. Thank you Larry. Remember though. To enjoy the experience, the wine has to be served slightly chilled at between 57 and 63 degrees. Can't wait to read the reviews of others.

6/13/2021 - Frank Murray III wrote:

First of three. I was curious to try this given the early notes shown below. For context, I opened this yesterday and sipped through about 1/2 of the bottle over about 4 hours. I put the remainder back into the fridge overnight, doing a new glass of it this afternoon for my note. It's pretty cold right now but I'm tasting the wine across several minutes as it warms up. Yesterday, I found the wine kinda big, with a cinnamon stick, anise and smoky kind of thing as the main aromatics of the wine. The fruit was red berry jam, which seemed consistent with the 14.6% alcohol. (As a side note, I don't recall RM putting the alc % numbers in the newsletter...if you guys are reading my note here, I am voting for that disclosure for the January 2022 release, please). Even when tamped down by the chill, I can still taste the jammy, hard candy aspect to this vintage of Summa. It also has a pinot funk note, what I called smoky yesterday but it's more of the funk thing. And I like Buzz's use of the words 'blood orange', which is a great descriptor. As the wine sheds some of the chill, man, an unctuous quality appears. It's the jammy thing but deeper, denser than something overtly sweet. With more air, the fruit becomes more delineated. Still get the blood orange note, but also strawberry and also raspberry. And with the less chilled temp, the cinnamon stick flavor from yesterday comes back into the finish, adding a real spiciness to the wine. As I taste through the last ounce or so, at what I think is the ideal temp, there is an added cola bean note in the finish. Overalll, this vintage of Summa seems like a throwback to the early years, when the wine was bigger, denser, richer, which I don't care for in Pinot Noir. And Buzz in his note talks about aging the wine, to allow improvement, but I am skeptical. I typically love Summa and I do like some age on the vineyard but I simply think that the 2019 its just a bit rich and too much for me.