Michael David Lust/Lodi 2007 Zinfandel
Black Oak 2009 Zinfandel
Dionysus is the Greek god of the "unexpected" and of the grape harvest; these two aspects so well describe the Halloween wine I'm tasting now (or maybe tomorrow). The Zinful (oops, Zinfandel) Wine I'll be tasting will be part of the "Halloween" wine selection I intend to present in October.
In the mean time, here are a couple of "Lustful"-links to explore while I'm gathering my wits to review the "unexpected":
Wine-Thoughts and
Wineaccess; both of which have contrasting views. My thoughts brooded over the 16.9% alcohol (Almost 34 proof), but I didn't feel it would be right for a Zin kind-of-guy to rationalize not tasting this Zin; in fact, experience demanded that I know what I'm talking about when it comes to this "type" of wine, just as it wouldn't be right not to taste that $6.00 bottle of Black Oak Zinfandel (Not yet reviewed).
As you can tell, I very much got into photographing this wine, because as this blog evolves, I find that, other than the wine itself, the challenge of presenting the wine is quite a bit of fun, but time consuming.
Well, today is "tomorrow".
My son marked the bags wherein stood the two bottles of Zinfandel wines, as easy a blind tasting as anyone could arrange, a blind tasting nevertheless.The number one wine is obtuse to black, but on the rim is deep Shiraz purple.
The aroma jumped out of the glass pungent, new cedar-chest and prune, almost nauseatingly so.
With a strong flavor of Portabello mushroom, this Zin is jammy, meaty, and chewy, with an almost syrupy quality. This"hot" Zin is not a stand alone wine, but did a bit better with food, Wine-Thoughts had that exactly right.
This Michael David Lust/Lodi 2007 Zinfandel, $50.00, 83 points, was not difficult to pick out, wouldn't be in a crowd. A friend of mine tried the same tasting the next day, and had exactly the same findings, but if you want to read about Michael-David's "redemption", check-out Jon Thorsen's
review: 2010-Seven-heavenly-chardonnay Jon Thorsen
There is deep ruby color, glittery with flashes of ambient sky-light.
The number two wine is aromatically reticent, but with a little swirling effort, out comes a bit of cedar and black-cherry, with subtle hints of strawberry making this a much more interesting wine. Having a light to medium body with lots of black pepper on the long finish, gives this somewhat one dimensional wine, with 14.5% alcohol, a much better rating (Needs to be room temperature or warm). Black Oak 2009 Zinfandel, $6.00, 86 points.
Copyright 2011 Dennis Tsiorbas. All rights reserved, Template provided by Blogger
Just a thought on the color "garnet" from the crystals often used as gem stones: since there are several types of garnet, all having a different color, what I think most are referring to is the
ReplyDeletePyrope garnet, which has a deep red hue. FYI!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Hi Dennis:
ReplyDeleteGreat post as usual. Although I haven't tasted these wines I have tasted a number of wines from Michael David Winery and generally find a quite reasonable, if not very good, price to value ratio. A couple of observations:
a) the most compelling thing about the photo is the picture of the bra in the background (men will never stop being fascinated with the female form); the actual name of the wine is one of the most sophomoric to date.
b) note to CA: super high alcohol levels mean that the wine will not age well, nor will it develop complexity from bottle age - just wanted you to know in case there are UC Davis sophomore interns actually making your wine.
c) note to consumer: drink this now because it won't ever get any better. In fact it will get worse quickly.
d) if you want to get loaded quickly on wine, this is your pick ("Lust"). Conversely if you wanted to just get loaded and the sauce doesn't matter, bourbon, vodka, scotch, etc will take you there faster, albeit not by much.
d) if I was a wino on the street, this would be my first choice if affordability was not an issue.
e) I, like many of us, could become a wino on the street at any moment.
Good stuff, keep up the great writing and tasting!
Best Regards,
David Boyer
classof1855.com
David, your comment is a clinical oenological answer blended with the wisdom of a "sage"; sort how Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc gave us Cabernet Sauvignon.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Dennis
"There has to be a place in any WINE lover's heart for guilty TASTINGS: WINES that don't deserve any awards, that even have fatal flaws, but are nonetheless just AS IMPORTANT to EXPERIENCE. . .(JUST ONCE)" This is an apropos paraphrase (MY INSERTIONS ARE capitalized, not much of a contribution!) from Drew Zahn
ReplyDeleteI do agree that the Lust could never just be enjoyed alone and I would never think to drink it in the summertime (it is 99 outside right now). I think a big part of it being so well-received here in Texas is how well it works with some of our spicy cuisine.
ReplyDeleteI also reviewed it in October last year. We last had a bottle in March or April and I thought it had a prune quality as well. I am now wondering how it is aging and what I will think when we open another bottle.
I will let you know when it cools down enough here to think about it.
Cheers! Sandra
Sandra, your comments are well received; I had a good friend over the other night, and he loved the David-Michael Lust Zin!
ReplyDeleteAs for the temperature in Texas, that too is understandable, although I do understand the occasion of opening a good (Great)Nebbiolo even in summer-time Texas. New Hampshire's over-night temp is, according to the National Weather Service, suppose to be 60 degrees.
At any rate, thanks for the visit.
Dennis