August 7, 2018 - Still very drinkable. Fruit still there. Enjoyable with food. Way past it’s prime drinking window but still enjoyable. Duarte has always been my favorite Turley. This is nothing like a young Duarte.
January 16, 2017 - This is ostensibly a bit old for this wine, but we were surprised. Still fully structured and without obvious flaws. Even decanted, it started out hot and maybe underwhelming in length, but it opened up nicely with a half hour at about 20°C. It had plenty of the spice and a bit of the richly sweet nose of a young Turley. Very full in the mouth, and no longer hot (after sitting and swirling). Finish is medium short and clear. Definitely more on the balsamic or round oldness end than the bright lemonade end. This might be a sipping wine more than a between bites accompaniment. Our meal (house porchetta, heavy on fennel) was the sort of thing that zinfandel suits, but I liked this wine better after the plates were clean. A good example of a concentrated table wine that tapers gently into old age.
July 19, 2015 - Flawed or never destined for pleasurable drinking? Funky, raisiny, bitter tannins, zero finesse on the nose. Another Turley cooking wine at best.
August 7, 2014 - Soft for a Zin. I liked the feel of the wine and it was over-powering. Turley makes great stuff.
June 9, 2014 - This was a beautiful, mature Zin that has reached a balance of all of its components. Still enough acid to stand up to a grilled New York steak but with enough richness and finesse to add to the experience rather than just cut the richness of the meat. Dark cherries, licorice, pepper and an earthy note rounded out the palate. Excellent wine probably at its peak.
December 16, 2013 - 07's are killing it right now
November 29, 2013 - Alas, I think I waited too long to open this. It was 'madeirized' and not drinkable. No rating for that
September 21, 2013 - Very pretty and soft (for Turley) nose of red fruit, spice and alcohol. Very ripe but mellow palate. Nice balance and smooth finish.
August 29, 2013 - Perfumey nose but too much baked notes and volatile acidity in the wine. I'm with Karpos on this.
July 31, 2013 - Drank as part of a 15 vineyard, 15 person, non-blind horizontal of 2007 Turley Zinfandels. Wines were opened but remained in the bottle for 1.5 hours; only Hayne was decanted. Wines were grouped by appellation. People did not taste wines in the same order. Hayne and Ubberroth were the clear winners.
A participant/statistician ran some interesting analyses:
• People got more lenient as they went on, with the 15th wine consumed rating on average a little over 1 point higher than the first. This trend became noticeable beginning about the 8-9th wine tasted. (Were the wines opening up more? Or, were people less discerning as BAC rose?)
• Four people (including me!!) rated wines significantly more in line with group opinion. Three other people were clearly contrarian; their deviations from the averages were much greater than the others.
• There was greater consistency in some wines than others; Mead, Moore, and Uberroth had the greatest consistency in ratings. Oddly, Hayne did not, even though most people probably surmised that Hayne was a most expensive wine.
In order, with average score (pretty tough graders!!):
Uberrroth Vineyard (Paso Robles) – 91.9
Hayne Vineyard (Napa, St. Helena)– 91.3
Tofanelli Vineyard (Napa) – 90.2
Salvador Vineyard (Contra Costa County) – 90.1
Moore “Earthquake” Vineyard (Napa)– 90.0
Dusi Vineyard (Paso Robles) – 89.9
Pesenti Vineyard (Paso Robles) – 89.9
Dogtown Vineyard (Central Valley, Lodi) – 89.7
Mead Ranch (Napa, Atlas Peak) – 89.4
Fredricks Vineyard (Sonoma, Sonoma Valley) – 89.3
Dragon Vineyard (Napa, Howell Mountain) – 89.2
Rattlesnake Ridge (Napa, Howell Mountain) – 89.2
Grist Vineyard (Sonoma, Dry Creek Valley) – 88.9
Duarte Vineyard (Contra Costa County) – 88.5
Cedarman (Napa, Howell Mountain) – 88.4
Surprisingly, Howell Mountain, where Outpost makes its great zin, did not fare well as an appellation. Not surprisingly, Paso Robles did very well.