2014 Martinelli Zinfandel Giuseppe & Luisa

Community Tasting Notes (38) Avg Score: 93.4 points

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  2/11/2024 - Texas Corkscrew Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Exceptional - great fruit, but powerful - went perfectly with the brisket at our Super Bowl Party.

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  11/18/2023 - VlgJeff Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Slo-oxed for 20 minutes to allow the wine to open - which it did very nicely - and darken. One of the best bottles of this wine that we've had.
  Lots of dark fruits - blackberry, black cherry - and spice on both the nose and the palate where they are joined by some pepper and a touch of earth. The acidity was quite juicy, but balanced the fruit rather than outpaced it, and any tannins were completely integrated. This wine should hold for another several years but enjoying it now - with some air up front - would be quite enjoyable.

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  2/23/2023 - wine4lux Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Drinking very well now. Dark purple with modest amounts of sedimentation. Elegant berry flavors with notes of subtle oak. Wish I had more of this gem of a vintage.

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  11/22/2022 - Hi.its.Don.4.Wine Likes this wine: 94 Points

  5 Years, But Now I Can Stop Counting
  
  It’s been 5 years since I last tasted today’s wine. More curious, to me at least, was that while I had a bottle of this wine way back then, I didn’t post a review on my blog. I did post a short comment on Cellar Tracker as well as a passing remark about it whilst I reviewed the 2016 Vintage of the same wine. For the life of me I can’t figure out why I wouldn’t have reviewed the wine back then, especially given its stellar reviews elsewhere and the glowing report I made on that other site.
  
  So let me correct that oversite right now and tell you about the:
  
  Martinelli "Giuseppe & Luisa" Russian River Valley Zinfandel 2014
  
  Now in its 6th Generation, this family-owned winery in Sonoma has mastered the art of grape growing for more than 140 years. Beginning with its founder Giuseppe Martinelli and his wife Luisa, they planted Zinfandel in what is now considered an iconic vineyard and the steepest non-terraced vineyard in Sonoma County, Jackass Hill. The name given after his family told him that only a jackass would farm a hill that steep.
  
  From their sustainably grown vineyards and operations in the Russian River Valley, the grapes for this wine come from the cuttings from that iconic vineyard and were planted not far from the Martinelli Winery estate in 1996 to honor the memory of Giuseppe and Luisa.
  
  The quality of this wine is noted in yearly assessments from one reviewer that never fell below 90 Points, and most considerably higher; with 2019 gaining 97 Points (good luck if you can find it). From the various vintages I’ve been privileged to try, I would second that year-to-year excellence.
  
  But let’s focus on this vintage for now.
  
  From the moment I poured that dense purple wine into my glass, I knew it was the wine from 5 years ago. Eager to sample my liquid fortune in front of me (after a 2-hour decant mind you), what I tasted was nothing less than superb. Big and rich without being jammy or too over the top, flavors of bright blueberry and blackberry mingled with just a hint of plum combined with the soft tannins to round out the wine's profile. The bright acidity lingers throughout and helps finish the wine to a long, spice-filled ending.
  
  Now I can say I have done homage to this wine and the Martinelli Family by drinking and writing about this wonderful wine.
  
  Cheers

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  8/23/2022 - tfesmgk Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Even better as it ages. The perfect blend of red fruit and zin spice with length on the finish.

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