Bought from the winery ($21 US) and smuggled up into Canada.
Having grew up in the interior of B.C. it struck me on the first whiff...
Think mid-day in late fall somewhere in the interior of B.C.
The day is warm for the season, the leaves have already finished falling weeks ago...think of that smell...sweet but earthy, over-ripe berries mixed with the dried vegetation, almost sharp on the nose.

Nose: Stewed Plums, cherry, licorice and pipe tobacco combine for the sweetness. Fresh vegetative notes and traces of floral. I also detected phenolic notes (leather, iodine). The other thing that struck me was a hint of something like ethyl acetate.

Taste: The first thing that I noticed was the alcohol and acidity levels...hot. Stewed-candied plums with cranberry and rhubarb. Detected dusty cedar with hints of black pepper and bay leaf. The phenolic and black tea (tannins) notes dominated the mid-palate, with the black tea being the most dominate. The finish starts with black tea and raisins and fades leaving a slight rhubarb-iodine aftertaste.

I sampled right out of the bottle, and had consistent results after one hour of decanting.
However, after 3 hours of decanting I found the stewed-candied plums to have faded a little, more cranberry and rhubarb, and a coffee/mocha flavor was added (was pointed out to me by another taster, I agreed).

You could count the amount of zinfandels I've had on two hands...so I'm a little wary of giving this wine my rating. I think mid to high 80's.

Thanks Vitis.
Will try the 2000 soon.

Canadian weather?
Nine months of hockey and three months of bad ice.