A wine friend recommended this and I tried a bottle. It is an extremely nice, easy to drink wine. Not loaded with tannins, not a lightweight wine by any means, but not a fruit bomb either.
Pleasant, moderate length finish.

We had this as our 2nd wine of the evening, following a Sullivan Coeur de Vigne 1998. We all liked this far better, and considering the delta in the cost, no comparison.

We were rather disappointed in the Sullivan. This one seemed far better at the winery than it did at home.

The Gallo is a very good value at $20. I didn't go hunting a better price, but I feel fairly sure that this can be had for somewhat less and I'd certainly recommend it for an everyday CS.

Anybody else tried this one?

wdot,
Where did you find the 99 Barrelli Creek?
I looked in wine-searcher - 0 results.
Went to the Gallo of Sonoma website. They show the 1997 as the latest vintage.
Strange.

OK, I'll try to answer part of my own question.
According to winerelease.com, the 99 was released in September 2002. I personally haven't seen it around these here parts yet. If it's anywhere near as good as the 1997, I'll be buying it by the case!

will they just be skipping 98? Not a ggod year sure, but I can't see them skipping it. And I have not seen it in the stores.

TCK

TCK,
I noticed on winerelease.com that there was no mention of a 98 Barrelli cab to be released in either 2001 or 2002. In fact, there's no mention of Frei or Stefani 98 cabs either. I wonder if they (wisely) declassified the grapes, and put them into the basic Gallo of Sonoma cab! The 98 basic G of S cab was better than average for the vintage.

budman, interesting theory. I just did a Google search and didn't find anything on the '98 Barelli, Stefani or Frei cabs.

I didn't taste the basic '98 Gallo Sonoma Cab. You said it was above average for the vintage--how above average and how would you compare it to the '97? Is it worth buying?

Just curious.

[ 11-06-2002, 11:28 AM: Message edited by: mletson ]

I have had Vinyard Designated Zins from 98, average wines. There are still stores around here that are selling 96 Frie Cab. Havn't seen the 97 Frie but I'd like to try it. BTW the 96 Frie is pretty green and underripe in my opinion.

TCK