3 Dog Whinery Zin-Lot 2006
Originally uploaded by e_gilman
This wine can’t be picked up in any store, but it’s still one of my sentimental favorites, so I had to include it. My grandparents live in Napa Valley, and every year the employees of the architectural firm where my step-grandmother works gather together, along with spouses and friends, to make wine. The blend varies from year to year, and they trade architectural work for oak barrels, bottles, and related ephemera. In 2006, the wine happened to be a blend of zinfandel and merlot. This suits me fine, because even though it’s somewhat out of style at the moment, I still have a soft spot for dry, tannic merlot taken in moderation (at some point, there develops an inverse relationship between the dryness and the tannins and how much of it I’m willing to down in a sitting). This wine is a decent balance of the merlot and the zinfandel. Both grapes are independently detectable: when you first imbibe, you’re hit with the merlot, giving way to a slightly spicy zinfandel finish. At some point after the first impression, the alcohol also hits you. Given the wine’s provenance, the exact alcohol content is unavailable (the bottle’s given ABV: “You’ll find out!”) but my impression after having sampled several bottles is: high. When you first uncork the bottle, the initial aroma is comparable to a bottle of aged ruby port: strong notes of oak and dark red fruit. The oak note fades in the glass, and after a few minutes is mostly dissipated, although it can still be detected to the taste. Personally, I love this wine with pasta with zesty red sauce, and I’m clinging in a miserly fashion to the bottles I have left.
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