2018 Zinfandel Old Vine Contra Costa County

 

This wine is made by a guy named Matt Cline.  He is a savant as far as winemaking goes.  And the terroir he grows his wine in is so special you won’t believe it.

First a little about Matt; Matt's winemaking career began in 1982 helping his brother at his Oakley winery; in 1985 he began as winemaker and creative director at Cline Cellars. In addition to his position at Cline in 1986 he joined Conn Creek as the assistant winemaker which lasted through 1989. Over the course of his 16-year career at Cline, Matt was responsible for branding Cline Cellars' unique style of winemaking.  Matt continues to focus on the historical California varietals (Carignane, Mataro, and Zinfandel), specifically in Contra Costa County. These vineyards and varietals represent the last maps of what the California wine industry was trying to do prior to prohibition in the 1920s. Matt values the advancement of a diverse and copious number of varietals, as he pushes to move away from the singular varietal trend that is both unsustainable and not historically accurate. To Matt and thousands of years of winemakers before him, blending varietals and finding a perfect balance between the grapes, is what winemaking is all about.  What a cool guy, huh?

With an average vine age of over 125 years, growing in a low vigor soil type, and combined with dry farming, results in smaller cluster and berry size. This Old Vines Zinfandel is sourced from, not just old vines, but ancient vines. This wine is a blend of 75.1% Zinfandel, 12.0% Petite Sirah, 9.3% Carignane, and 3.6% Alicante Bouschet.  Each grape contributes to the total finished wine in a particular way.  According to Matt here are the players in this wine  The 2018 OV Zinfandel shows a concentration of ripe blackberries and other red fruits, spice, with a minerality (dusty-berry) sneaking through. The Alicante Bouschet & Petite Sirah adds a lot of color, a firm tannin backbone, along with boysenberries and pepper, while the Carignane adds a pronounced fleshy mouth feel along with dark cherries and coffee notes. Overall, his blend has complex phenolic structures that enhance the overall mouth feel and age ability of this wine. Enjoy now or cellar in a cool location for 5-7 years or more. 

My take, the wine is a beautiful dark to the edge purple hue.  The nose jumps black pepper, Black fruit, with a hint of baking spices.  The mouth feel is very complex and large.  This is a mouth full of wine.  Lots of berries, cherries, coffee, nice aggressive tannins which really make the finish of the wine special.  A wonderful glass of wine, share this one with friends and family for sure.  You will be the hit of the night.

Not bad on the wallet either cost is $21.00

 

Cheers,

The Villages Wino

Manzanita Creek Rocky Ridge Vineyard 2016

 

This wine was shared with me by my sister and brother in law during dinner.  It was so impressive I had to put it up just in case you might be able to get your hands on a bottle.  Let it be said here that I am a huge fan of Great Zinfandels with a little age on them.  I know most zins are drunk right away.  But I have found that if laid down a bit they really start to express themselves like other great varietals.  This wine is one of those.

I searched this wine and found the winery website.  Here is what they say about their winemaking philosophy.

Ourphilosophy  is simple, start out with the best grapes we can find.

The majority of our grapes come from independent growers that are known for their love of what they do, they share our vision to produce the best. Our winemaking practices are bent on quality, fanatical some say...we're not driven by the bottom line. We employ modern as well as ancient techniques in our winemaking, and grape growing. We sort of wear blinders; we don't pay attention to what everybody else is doing. We have noticed a pattern over the years, a large number of wineries and grape growers are affected by what others do and say...the latest trend, the hottest varietal, the newest process.

Winemaking is primarily the same as it was since before the birth of Christ...it's an organic process, totally natural. It's the winemakers perception of quality that makes the difference, it's our definition of what tastes good, same as yours — that's what matters in the end. Put our wines to the test and see if we're good enough to be your winemakers. 

Rocky Ridge is an all Zinfandel property of the well-regarded Mauritson family. Biale sources from this vineyard and its retail price puts it in a league with other high end Sonoma vintners, Gamba for example.  If you don’t recognize these names they are among the finest zinfandel producers in all of California. 

The blend here is 97% zinfandel, 2% Petite Sirah, 1% Carignane

I’d recommend letting  this powerful wine open for, at least, 2 hours. This Manzanita Creek offering expresses the Rockpile AVA nicely. Lovely medium crimson color.  A highly aromatic blackberry, blueberry core vanilla from the oak and appealing spiciness typical of Rockpile, black pepper, clove, nutmeg. Deliciously complex on the palate with black fruits and spices, a smooth medium/full mouth feel, soft acidity and little tannin with a nice balance of fruit and acidity in the long finish.

I searched for this wine.  Here is what I found.  On the Winerywebsite it’s $65.

This is well worth the search.  Happy Hunting!!

 Cheers,

The Villages Wino

 

This wine was brought by my sister and shared with dinner.  You can surely ask Two Old Hags if they can get it.

Bodegas Izadi, Rioja Reserva

 

Located in Rioja Alavesa, Izadi aims to produce wines that express the terruño  (read Terroir or vineyards) of vineyards close to the Sierra de Cantabria solely from varieties indigenous to Rioja. They own 72 hectares and have access to another 108 hectares through long-term contracts. All are located within a triangle formed by Villabuena, Samaniego, and Ábalos – hence the triangle on their labels.

Stylistically, they adhere to a middle ground between tradition and modernism, valuing the former’s elegance to the latter’s fruit-forward qualities. The Antón Family founded Izadi in 1987 after years of managing vineyards in Villabuena de Alaba and restaurants in Vitoria.

Izadi’s Rioja Reserva comes from 100% older-vine Tempranillo that thrives in the chalky, clay-limestone soils and in a microclimate influenced both by elevation and the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. This provides the raw materials to craft a Rioja Reserva that retains a modern expression of fruit and sweet tannins on release but with the complexity to develop for decades.

FERMENTATION Hand harvested, destemmed and lightly crushed, natural yeast fermentation in stainless steel tanks

AGING 16 months in American (73%) and French (27%) barrels, 20% new, vegan

This is a beauty in the glass Garnet deep into the glass and a nice glycerin edge around the rim of the wine.  Nose is really cool.  Earthy, loam hen a strange thing my wife and I both smelled Bazooka bubble gum kinda sweet!  First taste is a bit pithy but in a good tannic kind of way then the fruitiness take over with red raspberries being forward. Very smooth and balanced finish.  Very well put together wine.  I can see why James Suckling has given this wine low 90’s the last three vintages.

Cost  $28.00

Cheers,

The Villages Wino

 

All wines available at Two Old Hags wine shop in Leesburg, unless otherwise stated

Bodegas Hermanos Pérez Pascuas, Ribera del Duero El Pedrosal Crianza

 

Viña Pedrosa’s story begins with Mauro Pérez and the lands that he loved and worked on throughout his life. He was a hard-working and innately intelligent man who taught his children to respect the land and take pride in their work. Today, the winery is on the vineyards that he left his family, in Pedrosa de Duero in the Spanish province of Burgos.

Believing deeply in the huge potential of the family vineyard, in 1980 the Pérez Pascuas siblings decided to found their own winery, pursuing their dream of making top quality wines and keeping the long tradition of winemaking alive.

Viña Pedrosa is now a robust and world-renowned venture involving two generations of enthusiastic wine connoisseurs who give their all to achieving the Bodegas Hnos. Pérez Pascuas goal: transforming the fruits of the earth into the best possible wine.

Now let’s talk about the levels of Rioja. And what the rules are for each category.

Rioja has a wine control board, called the Consejo Regulador DOCa Rioja, who inspects the quality of producers to ensure consistency. There are 4 different main styles of Rioja wine.

Rioja used to be called “vin joven” which literally means “young wine.” Now when a wine is labeled Rioja you can assume it’s a base-model Tempranillo. These wines don’t have the tannin structure or oak flavors that are common in the higher end wines. What they don’t have in structure they make up for in zippy fruit. Try this level of Rioja as a great example of the true varietal characteristics of Tempranillo wine.

Crianza

A minimum of one year in casks and a few months in the bottle. For white wines, the minimum cask aging period is 6 months. At the Crianza level, the wines are most commonly aged in used oak, so the oak flavors are not as strong. The goal of Crianza is a high-quality daily drinking wine. It’s not too rich, but with Tempranillo’s natural high tannin it has quite a bit more body than Merlot. It’s like a great valued Cabernet Sauvignon.

Reserva

Selected Red wines of the best vintages with an excellent potential that have been aged for a minimum of 3 years, with at least one year in casks. This is where Rioja tastes serious. At the Reserva level, winemakers often age their wines longer than the minimum and select better grapes. Many Rioja wine enthusiasts swear by Reserva level because they are a medium between super fruity Crianza and oakey-bottle-aged Gran Reserva.

Gran Reserva

Selected wines from exceptional vintages which have spent at least 2 years in oak casks and 3 years in the bottle. For white wines, the minimum aging period is 4 years, with at least one year in casks. The Gran Reserva level of Rioja experiences the most oak-aging. This gives Rioja wine the most tannin structure and age-worthy potential. What’s interesting about Gran Reserva is that most winemakers select the best grapes for this level and age them for as long as the wine needs. This means most of the new release Gran Reservas are around 10 years old or older when you first see them available.

 

Now you know all about Rioja! Let’s get to this wine.

California Cabernet fans looking to discover Old World wines should look no further than Ribera del Duero, just north of Madrid. Here you'll find Tempranillo, locally known as Tinto Fino. The intense dark fruit of the El Pedrosal is smoothed by American and French oak for 12 months, imparting notes of mocha and vanilla.  The wine is beautiful in the glass.  Deep garnet in the glass.  The aroma’s simply jump out of the glass cherry, dill, cloves, leather just a joy to breath in.  Then you taste; so smooth violets cherries tannins to finish. This one it would be easy to drink the entire bottle!

Cost $28.99

Cheers,

The Villages Wino

 

All wines available at Two Old Hags wine shop in Leesburg.  Unless otherwise noted

Obsidian Ridge, Cabernet Sauvignon Volcanic Estate Red Hills Lake County

 

Founded in 2003, by Arpad Molnar, Peter Molnar and Michael Terrien, Tricycle Wine Company is the parent company behind two boutique wine brands – Poseidon Vineyard and Obsidian Ridge. Tricycle is unique in the wine industry in that it controls the quality of its grapes from soil-to-crush and the quality of its oak from forest-to-coopering. They import oak barrels from the Budapesti Kadar Cooperage in Tokaj, Hungary. In addition to his vineyard management duties, Peter Molnar is in charge of production at Budapesti Kadar. Alex Beloz, the winemaker, moved to California after working in Bordeaux, New Zealand and Chile.

Twenty years ago, they planted a vineyard on an old abandoned walnut orchard, 2460 feet high in the Mayacamas Mountains. They soon discovered that they were farming on a volcano, on a ridge of solid black Obsidian glass. Today, the extreme climate, altitude, and volcanics result in a wine like no other..

Since then, they have dedicated two decades to learning what makes volcanic wines unique and what is possible in this harsh environment. They learned that these wines are prized for their aromatics, acidity, and structure. They built a team of iconoclasts—each experts in their own craft—who share a strong ethos. They gained a better understanding of climate, soil, viticulture, winemaking, and hospitality.

In 2023, they mark the 50th anniversary of experience growing grapes, a tradition passed from their father who fled his native Hungary in 1956. They are the second generation building upon the work of the first, who planted our seaside Poseidon Vineyard in 1973. They returned to Hungary in 1992 to establish a cooperage in the Tokaj forest–today our wines are 100% estate, made and aged in their  Hungarian Oak barrels.

Obsidian wines are the only Cabernet Sauvignons in California (perhaps the world) aged in 100% Hungarian oak barrels. Their source forest in Tokaj is planted to the same oak species used in France, Quercus Petraea, however the trees grow more slowly due to the volcanic soils, resulting in 30% higher density of the wood. These super-tight-grain barrels are low in vanillan and relatively high in eugenol, which tends to emphasize herbal and spice components, and are toasted slowly at low temperatures to avoid imparting overt toasty notes.

What is Obsidian rock?

From Wikipedia 

Obsidian (/əbˈsɪdi.ən, ɒb-/) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock.

Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminum, sodium, and potassium. It is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows. These flows have a high content of silica, granting them a high viscosity. The high viscosity inhibits diffusion of atoms through the lava, which inhibits the first step (nucleation) in the formation of mineral crystals. Together with rapid cooling, this results in a natural glass forming from the lava.

Obsidian is hard, brittle, and amorphous; it therefore fractures with sharp edges. In the past, it was used to manufacture cutting and piercing tools, and it has been used experimentally as surgical scalpel blades.

Wow that’s a mouth full for sure, but now you know.

OK now about the wine. The blend is different for sure it consists of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon 3% Malbec 3% Petite Sirah 2% Petit Verdot 2% Syrah.  Estate Cabernet is the signature wine of Obsidian Ridge Vineyard and embodies the complexity and wildness of the site. The structure and intensity of upper blocks is complemented by aromatics and acidity of cooler blocks. The extreme climate, altitude, and volcanics of the site result a wine with distinct volcanic character—intense color, aroma and flavor, with a freshness and minerality that typifies the site.

Nice dark hue of purple in the glass.  Aromas of  red cherries, cinnamon and spice. Flavors of plum, woven with dried oregano, are supported by a rich texture of fine, leathery tannins. Notes of star anise, cinnamon, and orange and a bit of pecan pit on the very end.  A lovely balance of everything you love in mountain California Cabernet.

Cost is $49.99 

 

Cheers,

The Villages Wino

 

All wines available at Two Old Hags wine shop in Leesburg.  Unless otherwise noted

Matias Russian River Pinot Noir

 

Matias was founded in 2008, by Brack Mountain Wine Company and is a next generation winery focused on producing hand-crafted, premium wines sourced from the best growers, offered at a fair price. The winery is located in Sebastopol, California

As a next generation wine company, they literally think about “the next generation”. Simply put, they want to leave the earth in better shape than how they found it. So at Brack Mountain Wine Company, sustainability is more than a “nice to have”...it’s a business imperative. They are committed to sustainable practices‐‐ whether in the vineyard, at the winery, in the office or on the road.

A little about the wine maker; Dan  Fitzgerald

There is a new generation of talented winemakers emerging in California, and Dan Fitzgerald is one to watch. A Northern California native, Dan lived in Europe for 13 years, which helps explain his keen interest in both Old and New World winemaking techniques.

Dan’s winemaking career began in 2002, just a few miles from Brack Mountain's Enos Vineyards, working harvest in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma County. Not content to wait until the next California harvest, Dan worked two hemispheres for 3 years; doing back-to-back harvests at Coldstream Hills in the Yarra Valley of Australia, Robert Sinskey Vineyards in Napa Valley, then back down under to Coldstream Hills as a leader for the 2004 vintage team. With four harvests under his belt, Dan enrolled in one of the premier Enology programs in the US, at CSU Fresno, graduating in 2007.

Dan worked at Williams-Selyem for the 2007 harvest and joined Pellegrini Family Vineyards, where he was head winemaker until coming to Brack Mountain Wine Company as a Partner to lead the winemaking.

Matias Russian River Pinot Noir

To say this is an over achiever would be the biggest understatement of the year.  Take a look at the vineyards Matias is sourced from here is a brief list

•AMARAL RANCH •ROBERT'S ROAD •KISER •LAKEVILLE VINEYARD

These are rockstar vineyards all planted pre 1990!  So the fruit for this wine has some high pedigree for sure. 

When I'm considering purchasing a Russian River Pinot,  I look for wines that have some "meat on the bone" along with richer, plusher, and more luxurious aromas and flavors. That is exactly what you get here, but you typically have to spend $50+ to get it.

It pours a deep ruby color and exudes classic scents of ripe cherry, raspberry preserves, clove, vanilla, and allspice. Equally attractive, the palate is lush, silky, long, and satisfying. All you have to do is look at the above vineyard sourcing list and see why this wine is amazing.  They do not breakdown the sites on the label but we know where they get a lot of the grapes from.  This is a killer Pinot Noir

This one costs $32.99 and by the taste should be $50!   I won’t tell if you don’t!

 

Cheers,

 

The Villages Wino

 

All wines available at Two Old Hags wine shop in Leesburg.  Unless otherwise noted

Melka Paderewski Vineyard Majestique Paso Robles

 

 

Well what a find here.  In case you didn’t know Philip Melka is the leading winemaking consultant in Napa right now.  Everything he touched turns into a 95+ rating.  He was born in Bordeaux.  He studied geology, advancing toward a Masters in Agronomy and Enology at the University of Bordeaux.  His first jobs in the USA were with Dominus and Ridge.  Then in 1995 he founded his consulting company and worked with such great wines as Lail Vineyards, Seavey Vineyard, and Constant Diamond Mountain.  Then he decided to make his own wines in 1996 and they say the rest say is history. 

As a sidebar here all of the labels have only his eyes staring back at you.  But the color of the eyes changes on every different bottle.  I have emailed the winery to see if there is a reason and will report back if they answer. 

Well I found this bottle and had to try it.  It Christmas time so what the heck right.  I can’t leave all my money to my son!  More on that below.

Let’s talk about the fabulous glass of wine.  The wine is from Paso Robles one of my favorite areas.  This one a Rhone Blend 42% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 28% Mourvedre, 18% Whole Cluster

As I have stated here before I love Rhone wines!  This one is very special for sure.

The color deep dark purple. The nose is so creamy it’s very unusual for sure.  Then it turns to soft flowers like Violets or Lilacs. Then the berries take over mostly red raspberries, strawberries. The nose is just amazing.  I could smell this wine all evening.  Then the first taste; so smooth, with balanced tannins, nice spice and great finesse over all. The finish is all over your month.  It leaves you really wanting the next sip.  This is simply a killer wine. 

 

As  I said above this on is a date night wine for sure.  But if you partner loves great wine you will really impress them with this jewel.  I know mine was blown away.  Expect to pay about $70.  I got mine for $67.99.  Well worth the splurge for the experience for sure.  

 

Cheers,

The Villages Wino

 

All wines available at Two Old Hags wine shop in Leesburg.  Unless otherwise noted.