All too often, Zinfandel is a highway to a quick, cheap buzz. It’s often confused with white zin, rarely celebrated by wine writers aside from patriotic holidays, and it’s almost never aged.
However, there’s Zin, and then there’s a wine like Ridge Geyserville.
I had a chance to visit the property and talk with the cellar masters this past spring. Although I also tasted some spectacular wines of Monte Bello, I was looking forward to the tasting of old zinfandels dating back to 1973, including multiple pairs of Geyserville and Lytton Springs–could a Zinfandel age gracefully, I wondered? Read more…
It may seem absurd to write a post in praise of mature wine–indeed, it’s one of those things, like sunny days and flowers in bloom, that people aren’t exactly rushing to oppose. But sometimes we still need encouragement to take time to smell the flowers and such is the case with enjoying mature wine. It has come up a few times in (offline) discussion that I have been in recently: do people still cellar wine? Is mature wine relevant? And, most pointedly, why do young people hate mature wine? Read more…