($22):  Full disclosure, I generally do not like Zinfandel, so I may be under scoring this wine.  This is a masterful blend of Zinfandel (78%) from dry-farmed, 95-plus year old vineyards, Petite Sirah and Carignan.  Dry-farmed vineyards ensure that the roots of the vines go deep to find water and presumably other compounds that add to the flavor of the grapes and, subsequently, to the wine.  Old vines produce fewer but more interestingly flavored grapes.   On balance, then, this wine has lots going for it.  And it delivers.  It’s certainly a boisterous wine, but thankfully, it is not over the top.  Ripe and spicy, it handles the 14.5 percent stated-alcohol well, and does not finish hot.  There’s an unexpected and welcome refinement to this wine, which I suspect comes from the dry-farmed old vines.  It’s a wine for this winter when the temperature plummets and you have a slow-cooked lamb shanks in the oven.
92 Michael Apstein Nov 6, 2018