Millennial son disparaged older wines from the cellar as "over the hill" until we opened a 1974 Clos du Val Zinfandel about 4 years ago. The light bulb went on.
I've really come around on Zinfandel and like it. I've enjoyed Beekeeper (Sonoma) and Biale in Napa. Where do they fall on your OG status? Do they over cab / darken the fruit? I'm trying to age the Beekeeper I have for 20 years but it's going to be difficult :)
Aging any red wine, particularly Zinfandel, is related to the structure of the product and not the color. As I mentioned in the article, many of the old Louis Martini Zins were not particularly dark in color, but many of them survived 30 or 40 years. Of course, there will always be diminished fruit components., and one example was a 1970 Souverain Zin we had about 1995, which everyone in the room identified as Cabernet!
It's easy for some younger people to suggest that old red wines "lack" fruit. My view is that the fruit just gets more interesting -- sort of like how people gain wisdom.
Millennial son disparaged older wines from the cellar as "over the hill" until we opened a 1974 Clos du Val Zinfandel about 4 years ago. The light bulb went on.
Thank you for this article. I love zin but the old peppery zin with low alcohol. Now I know where to purchase it!
The key is balance.
I've really come around on Zinfandel and like it. I've enjoyed Beekeeper (Sonoma) and Biale in Napa. Where do they fall on your OG status? Do they over cab / darken the fruit? I'm trying to age the Beekeeper I have for 20 years but it's going to be difficult :)
Aging any red wine, particularly Zinfandel, is related to the structure of the product and not the color. As I mentioned in the article, many of the old Louis Martini Zins were not particularly dark in color, but many of them survived 30 or 40 years. Of course, there will always be diminished fruit components., and one example was a 1970 Souverain Zin we had about 1995, which everyone in the room identified as Cabernet!
Michaela:
It's easy for some younger people to suggest that old red wines "lack" fruit. My view is that the fruit just gets more interesting -- sort of like how people gain wisdom.
A long time ago, probably 1982 or so, i did a blind tasting of 6 Napa Valley Cabs. The winner? A Burgess Zinfandel!