Wine Tasting - 2005 Seghesio Old Vine Zinfandel, Sonoma County

We received this bottle in one of our wine club shipments from Seghesio. Seghesio has a great tasting room in the heart of the Sonoma Valley just outside of Healdsburg. We made a stop by there tasting room the last time we were in Sonoma, and decided to sign up for the wine club. Click here for my review of that visit!

A bit of background on the wine –

As the name would imply, the wine is made from old head pruned vines from vineyards in both the Alexander and Dry Creek Valleys. The 2005 growing season was relatively cool and provided a long period of time for grapes to develop slowly and maturely. The grapes were harvested from the end of September to the 1st week of October at a nice high Brix (sugar content) of 26.4. The 2005 Old Vine Zin saw 12 months of barrel aging in a mix of 75% French and 25% American oak, after 10 days of maceration with a final alcohol level of 15.3%.





My Tasting Notes –

Nose – Fig, raisin, sun-dried tomato

Taste – Boysenberry jam, fresh baby spinach

Mouthfeel – Full body, nice balance, good acid and no real “heat” with the high alcohol

Finish – Long and peppery

Stay tuned in the future for more wine reviews from Seghesio. We feel bad when we drink the ones that they only distribute from the tasting room or to the wine club, so we hold to them as long as we can.

Wine Tasting - 2004 Pascual Toso Reserve Single Estate Malbec

I received this wine for my birthday back in May from my buddy Mike and his fiancée Bobbi. Mike and Bobbi are huge Malbec fans, so I knew this had to be a winner.

A bit of background on the wine –

2004 was a good year for Malbec in Argentina, and rated up there with 2002 and 2003 that were considered excellent vintages for the region. 2004 saw fantastic weather for the majority of the season, although there was some late season rain, the crop was harvested under favorable conditions.

This wine was made from 100% Malbec grapes that are harvested by hand from vineyards in Las Barrancas, Maipu, Mendoza. After fermentation the 100% of this Reserve Malbec is aged in French Oak barrels for 12 months compared to only 30% of the non-reserve which is aged only 10 months. After barrel maturation, it is allowed to age in the bottle for an additional 6 months prior to release.

My Tasting Notes –

Nose – Blackberry, Swisher Sweet cigar, roasting coffee and candle wax

Taste – Blackberry jam, tobacco, black cherry towards the finish

Mouthfeel – Medium to Full body, very smooth

Finish – Nice and long with a lot of cherry flavors, good grip and slightly spicy

This is an excellent wine and a great value, especially if you get it for free, or if you pay for it. I think it retails for around $13.00. This Malbec had a nice complex nose, with jammy dark fruit flavors and a long gripping finish.

Give it a try, I think it is pretty well distributed – about 4000 cases are made of the Reserve.

Two Wine Tastings at The Wine Cellar This Week

Jeff and his Wine Cellar crew are treating us to two tastings again this week.

Thursday – Beaujolais Nouveau Tasting

Jeff will pit the Nouveau against 3 Cru Beaujolais from 2005 for an unofficial taste off. The Beaujolais tasting will only be from 5:30 – 7:30.

Friday – Thanksgiving Dinner Wines

1. TORRES VINA ESMERALDA CATALUNYA WHITE $15.45
2. CHATEAU STE MICHELLE EROICA DRY RIESLING $25.45
3. BYRON SANTA MARIA VALLEY PINOT NOIR $27.45
4. FOREFATHERS McLAREN VALE SHIRAZ $28.45
5. FONSECA BIN 27 RUBY PORT $19.45

The Friday tasting is the normal time of 5:00 – 8:00 and both tastings are FREE as usual.

Hope to see you all there.

A quick reminder – after this week Anything Wine will be switching to a wordpress address. The new site will be anythingwine.wordpress.com. I am posting to both currently, but after this week I will stop on the blogspot site. So please change you feeds and bookmarks to the new address. Thanks so much for continuing to read Anything Wine!!