SDMB Wine Club -- Week Two

Cafe Society
21

From http://www.epicurious.com/drinking/wine_dictionary/entry?id=6285

dry
A term that describes wine that isn’t sweet; its French counterpart is SEC. In a fully dry wine, all the sugar has been converted to ALCOHOL during FERMENTATION. A medium-dry wine has a small amount of RESIDUAL SUGAR, but not enough to prevent the wine from being enjoyed with a meal.

Or from my personal definition:
dry
A term that describes wines that are yucky.

(I don’t drink things that aren’t sweet, except for water. You would be horrified at what I do to coffee.)

22

2003 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel Reserve - $15 @ Bottle Barn

Opened this up a couple of hours ago and shared it with my son. We enjoyed it with a bacon and sausage topped pizza after our initial tastings.

My notes -

Ruby red in color. Aromas of plum, bing cherry, clove, earth and wood. My son noted the earth and wood as ‘dirt and dead branches.’

Taste - The blackberry was what really popped out for both of us. With clove, tea, and pencil (picked up by my son, though I agreed. He said 'like chewing on a pencil." At 19, he has an absolutely amazing palate.)

I liked the texture - smooth, maybe a tiny bit too thin, but nice and easy.
Medium finish, no flavors really hanging around.
Something was missing for me though. Something ‘Zinfandel’ - maybe a little more spice, maybe a little more weight in the mouth, maybe both.

It paired well with the pizza, but I have to admit it was a little lost. A little more boldness would have made it a much better match.

The Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma is famous for it’s Zinfandel. (It’s also some of the best cycling in the county and one of my favorite places to ride out to.)
This to me is a fair example at a somewhat fair price that is widely available.

To give perspective - earlier this week I had a Mazzocco Zinfandel, also from DCV and for about the same price, maybe a dollar or two more. The Mazzocco was classic DCV Zinfandel, elegantly done. Given the choice, I’d pass the RZ for the Mazzocco in a heartbeat. I don’t know how widely available the Mazzocco is. Perhaps I’m getting spoiled up here.

I think I’ll try the Monte Rosso vineyard tomorrow.

23

If I had to guess I’d say there is a teeny, tiny amount of residual sugar left in this particular wine, but not much. The fruitiness gives the impression that there is a little more than what is actually in there though. Still, I would call this a dry wine.

24

I would agree that this was a dry winethen. Not terribly sweet. I don’t ordinarily like wines that are too dry but this was tasty. Blackberry huh? I guess maybe I could taste that. Its definitely one of the better wines I’ve had.

25

I hope I can find it, because even if it isn’t sweet, if it has a nice fruit taste that will probably also be good.

26

I like this one better than last week’s, though I also liked that one. This one is less sweet, which I like. I also like the hint of spice, but agree with psycat that it could be a little spicier. It doesn’t have a tannic aftertaste, which I appreciate. I’m trying to get further into full-bodied reds, but it’s baby-steps, I guess, because I still don’t like too much tannin. (Not to discourage others from choosing tannic wines, I’m trying to expand my knowledge and palate.) I’m pleased to report I didn’t taste pencil, though. :slight_smile: I had the first glass of mine with a medium-spiced jambalaya, which overwhelmed it. I had to have a second glass after dinner – darn :wink: – to really evaluate and appreciate it.

I liked it. I’d buy it again. Nice pick, Rick! :slight_smile:

27

This wine was so tasty I went out and bought a second bottle, this time the '03. I can taste the blacberry now. What do tannins taste like? I think I might not like them.

28

Tannins will give a wine that ‘dry, puckery, astringent’ characteristic. They can also taste bitter.
I usually feel the dryness on my tongue first, then along my cheeks and the back of my throat. If the wine is really tannic, that dryness will stay with me long after I’ve swallowed or spit.

The wine I noted above didn’t have much in the way of tannins, just enough to hold the wine together so to speak.

Right now I’m drinking the 2003 Rancho Zabaco Sonoma Valley Zinfandel - Monte Rosso Vineyard. (The Monte Rosso Vineyard is a well respected and highly regarded one in the county,
with much of it planted to Zinfandel dating back to the late 1800s.)

Similar to the DCV, with raspberry the most prominent fruit aroma, followed by blackberry and dried cherries.
This one had a little more structure to it, with tastes of raspberry jam, blueberry, clove, nutmeg, black pepper. It has more tannins than the other, a bit more weight, and a longer finish.

At $30 a bottle, I don’t think it was anything to write home about though. The DCV was certainly a much better value for my money.

29

Not having been able to locate a bottle of the club’s suggested wine, I opened a bottle of red I had on hand. Unfortunately, the cork broke in half, and a spare plastic cork that I had lying around won’t fit in the bottle.

oh darn. I guess that means I have to drink it all tonight, so it won’t go to waste.

:wink:

30

Corks in wine bottles are like lids on pints of ice cream…when they are removed, they are thrown away, having served their purpose. :smiley:

31

Opalcat. I would be interested to hear what you think of this wine. My sister loves wines that they describe as dry. I find most of those wines as barely palatable but since they buy I drink. This was definitely a dry wine, but very fruity. If it weren’t so pricey (really I graduate soon) it would one of my wines of choice.

32

I was unable to find two of the three wines frm the selection. I had, by chance, a bottle of the Dancing Bull Zin in my wine rack so here goes…

I am a big fan of zinfandel to start with. I do not have as educated palate as some, but I am learning. The “nose” of this wine was very pleasant, and the first sip was large and fruity. Nothing understated here. There was a hint of acidity that I now know is the tannin. The aftertaste (finish?) was tart and enjoyable. Over the course of the evening as i finished the bottle I decided that my nine bucks (or so) was well spent. There is a place in my wine rack for this lovely, affordable wine. I will continue to look for the other vintages mentioned in the OP and I look forward to trying them.

33

I like it. Not sure if I like it more than the Menage a Trois, but I definitely like them differently. It does have a hint of dryness, enough that it goes better with food than alone. We had it with pad thai last night, which was a decent complement, but both **Dangerosa **and I agreed we’d like it with something in the beef line – my choice would be a bacon cheeseburger. :slight_smile:

Our resident smell expert (our 8-year old son, who has the most amazing sense of smell and must smell everything before eating it) detected wood and oranges in the bouquet. There’s a hint of (not unpleasant) mustiness, kind of like sandalwood – a definite spicy quality to the aroma. Not that it’s actually spicy, it just has a spicy quality, much like safety scissors have a sharp quality.

This is about as dry as I like in a wine – much more acidity/tartness and I find that I can’t taste the wine past the acid. I think we’ll pick up another bottle and lay it away for a grilling day, either with the aforementioned burgers or perhaps some porketta pork chops courtesy of our local butcher shop.

34

A little sharp, which isn’t bad. I like a little more tannin in my wines than Brainiac4 does (a good red goes well with a glass of ice water - a good waiter just brings you water with your wine) Fruity.

My uncle had some of the Dancing Bull Zin and the Dancing Bull Merlot at his Christmas party - more of the Zin since he doesn’t drink at all anymore and they guy at the wine shop said “Zins are really popular, Merlot is so passe.” The Merlot went, my dad and I were “bartending” (which means we were standing behind the bar) and had to push the zin - most were expecting a white zin and were surprised with the red wine poured into their glass. They didn’t mind it, but perferred tha familiar Merlot.

(OpalCat, try the Toad Hollow Risque - its a sparkling wine - really sweet - goes great with dessert.)

35

How sparkling is it? I’m not generally a big fan of carbonation (it hurts my mouth)

36

I liked this. I’m learning to like dry wines, and this is a good “bridge” - not sweet, not too dry. I think for me a combo of dry and high tannins is the really yucky stuff, so because this was low in tannins, the dryness wasn’t objectionable.

I had it with pizza, and it held its own with the multitude of flavors involved.

37

I had the Heritage Vine 2004 with panfried spiced chicken and potatoes, and found it to be a bit overwhelming with that particular dish. The Hubby wasn’t as enamored of it as I am – I’d be willing to add this to our “keeper” list; he wants to try it one more time, with steak.

The aroma is very cherry and blackberry, the taste more blackberry than cherry and leaves a good finish. It’s a strong flavored wine and as the OP said, will probably go best with steak or other hearty meals.

And agreed with everyone who said this was just dry enough – not so much tannin that it overpowered anything. Yum.