Seghesio Zinfandel Alexander Valley Home Ranch 2009 - $95

Top 100: 2011, Rank: 12

quote:

Originally posted by hippomon:
Seghesio Zinfandel Alexander Valley Home Ranch 2009 - $95

what a joke...spectator becomes more irrelevant each day.....

Wait. There is actually a Zinfandel that sells for $95?

quote:

Originally posted by eyesintime:
Wait. There is actually a Zinfandel that sells for $95?

It is either a much belated April's Fool joke or he actually meant 95 points. And the answer to your question is yes. Turley and Martinelli Zinfandel.

Yes, it was a mistake, I meant 95 points.
BTW - Mazzocco has a Zinfandel for $150.
I would love to understand why some people think a Zinfandel is not worth that much.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Canada:

quote:

Originally posted by hippomon:
Seghesio Zinfandel Alexander Valley Home Ranch 2009 - $95

what a joke...spectator becomes more irrelevant each day.....

No.

quote:

Originally posted by hippomon:
Yes, it was a mistake, I meant 95 points.
BTW - Mazzocco has a Zinfandel for $150.
I would love to understand why some people think a Zinfandel is not worth that much.

I very rarely spend $95 on a bottle of wine and when I do it isn't/wouldn't be on a Zinfandel. I suppose there could be a Zinfandel "worth" $95; I just don't get enough relative enjoyment from Zinfandels at lower price points to ever warrant spending the money to find out.

quote:

Originally posted by spo:

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Canada:

quote:

Originally posted by hippomon:
Seghesio Zinfandel Alexander Valley Home Ranch 2009 - $95

what a joke...spectator becomes more irrelevant each day.....

No.

Yes.

This is a joke, right? With all the truly amazing wines from Bordeaux and the Rhone, not to mention others, this cannot be true. As much as I adore these boards, the people, the comments and notes, the choices that WS has made the last several years are simply beyond belief. I realize the subjectivity in wine appreciation, but come on!

WS for me has become more about the articles on travel, the forum and least about their choices of wine.

That's not to say that I do not appreciate Seghesio. On my trip to Napa/Sonoma, we stopped there and I enjoyed their Zins. If I had to choose this grape, I'd put Seghesio as my producer of choice. But, WOTY? Not quite imho.

quote:

Originally posted by DoktaP:
This is a joke, right? With all the truly amazing wines from Bordeaux and the Rhone, not to mention others, this cannot be true. As much as I adore these boards, the people, the comments and notes, the choices that WS has made the last several years are simply beyond belief. I realize the subjectivity in wine appreciation, but come on!

WS for me has become more about the articles on travel, the forum and least about their choices of wine.

That's not to say that I do not appreciate Seghesio. On my trip to Napa/Sonoma, we stopped there and I enjoyed their Zins. If I had to choose this grape, I'd put Seghesio as my producer of choice. But, WOTY? Not quite imho.

once again....ditto to Larry's comments. The magazing is now a travel and wine appreciation magazine....their role as a critic of wine is over in my opinion

Big deal! You didn't like the choice. The moaning about it is ridiculous.

What I am trying to understand is why can't a Zinfandel be WOTY. Why is it that WOTY is reserved to some grapes and not others ? I am very interested to hear your thoughts about this.

quote:

Originally posted by hippomon:
What I am trying to understand is why can't a Zinfandel be WOTY. Why is it that WOTY is reserved to some grapes and not others ? I am very interested to hear your thoughts about this.

Well, personally speaking, Zins just don't hit the heights that some of the other varietals can.

My first Batard-Montrachet, Les Amoureuses, and aged Pauillac didn't just open my eyes to the potential of the varietal, but launched it into the stratosphere for Chard, Pinot, and Cab.

For me, this is what makes a wine truly electrifying, when it blows away your paradigm. Zins just don't seem to do that for people.

I have no problem with any grape being chosen WOTY, but when Rhone or Bordeaux or any other region have such an extraordinary vintage, you'd think they'd be recognized. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing personal.

US wine 4th year in a row.

Yes US but it is the Shafer Relentless bottle not this Seghesio zinfandel. Hippomon is yanking your chain.

quote:

Originally posted by Board-O:
Big deal! You didn't like the choice. The moaning about it is ridiculous.

You moan about stuff all the time Board-O. What's the difference? What gives you the right to do it and not me?
Its not just that I don't like the choice....I have lost faith in their role as wine critics....I do not find them credible to review wines, score them and give advice

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dave Canada,

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Canada:

quote:

Originally posted by DoktaP:
This is a joke, right? With all the truly amazing wines from Bordeaux and the Rhone, not to mention others, this cannot be true. As much as I adore these boards, the people, the comments and notes, the choices that WS has made the last several years are simply beyond belief. I realize the subjectivity in wine appreciation, but come on!

WS for me has become more about the articles on travel, the forum and least about their choices of wine.

That's not to say that I do not appreciate Seghesio. On my trip to Napa/Sonoma, we stopped there and I enjoyed their Zins. If I had to choose this grape, I'd put Seghesio as my producer of choice. But, WOTY? Not quite imho.

once again....ditto to Larry's comments. The magazing is now a travel and wine appreciation magazine....their role as a critic of wine is over in my opinion

and you think that this is a recent development?!

quote:

Originally posted by Sleepyhaus:

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Canada:

quote:

Originally posted by DoktaP:
This is a joke, right? With all the truly amazing wines from Bordeaux and the Rhone, not to mention others, this cannot be true. As much as I adore these boards, the people, the comments and notes, the choices that WS has made the last several years are simply beyond belief. I realize the subjectivity in wine appreciation, but come on!

WS for me has become more about the articles on travel, the forum and least about their choices of wine.

That's not to say that I do not appreciate Seghesio. On my trip to Napa/Sonoma, we stopped there and I enjoyed their Zins. If I had to choose this grape, I'd put Seghesio as my producer of choice. But, WOTY? Not quite imho.

once again....ditto to Larry's comments. The magazing is now a travel and wine appreciation magazine....their role as a critic of wine is over in my opinion

and you think that this is a recent development?!

nope....cancelled my print and web subscription 4 years ago...

Interesting. I cancelled my print subscription around 3 years ago because the content was becoming less and less relevant to me. I've read some positive comments lately about print content (most recently by GlennK). He is a young, yuppie jetsetter though, so perhaps his perspective is skewed.....

PH

I too have commented on the generally positive swing of the print content, led as always by the consistency of Matt Kramer. This is just another terrible choice for a WOTY, and I agree that it hurts credibility. That doesn't take away from a general improvement in content, but to imply that this wine is somehow the most dynamic/interesting/high quality wine tasted this year is laughable.

I see a few factors contributing to boring choices for their list.

Affordability is a strong criteria in determining the wines that make the list. They're pretty much all under $100. I suspect that this is due to either WS thinking that readers are interested in seeing only wines that they can reasonably afford or they feature wines that people can afford because the increase in sales from making the list will attract more advertisers to their magazine. I feel like it's more the latter.

The problem with this is analogous to a travel magazine featuring vacations that are highly budget-friendly as the "Top 10 places to vacation". People want to be inspired by really exhilirating destinations and vacations. Not underwhelmed with "I've done better than that, many times".

quote:

Originally posted by PurpleHaze:
Interesting. I cancelled my print subscription around 3 years ago because the content was becoming less and less relevant to me. I've read some positive comments lately about print content (most recently by GlennK). He is a young, yuppie jetsetter though, so perhaps his perspective is skewed.....

PH

Haha. I’m from the hood so I don’t know if I’ll ever crossover into a full yuppie, but I’ll take jetsetter!! I think the content from a producer profile, vintage profile and travel/lifestyle perspective is still really strong and especially so this year. I do not read the tasting notes though. I do think Molesworth and Sanderson are very good tasters and often agree with their assessment of a wine, but I just don’t buy based on critics notes anymore so I skip over those sections.

I am surprised though at Dave Canada and others saying that their role as wine critics is over? I would still consider it better than the WA due to the blind tasting and again I think Molesworth and Sanderson are very solid. I don’t have foundation to make much of an opinion on Laube and Steiman as I just don’t drink or like the same style of wines as they do. The top 100 is supposed to generate buzz and conversation about the year of wine and obviously sell magazines! I don’t see how that is related to not being able to take their critics serious? I think it’s a crappy choice for #1 as well based on my own tastes in wine, but guess who thinks it’s a great choice? The thousands of people that love Shafer wines!

quote:

Originally posted by Danyull:
I see a few factors contributing to boring choices for their list.

Affordability is a strong criteria in determining the wines that make the list. They're pretty much all under $100. I suspect that this is due to either WS thinking that readers are interested in seeing only wines that they can reasonably afford or they feature wines that people can afford because the increase in sales from making the list will attract more advertisers to their magazine. I feel like it's more the latter.

The problem with this is analogous to a travel magazine featuring vacations that are highly budget-friendly as the "Top 10 places to vacation". People want to be inspired by really exhilirating destinations and vacations. Not underwhelmed with "I've done better than that, many times".

Of course they are putting wines that are easier to find and somewhat attainable to the common person. If the top 10 was all DRC’s and Lafite, there would be outrage from the non wine geek crowd. Plus, I think the advertising thing is bogus. Not one of the wines in the top 10 is likely to actually advertise in the magazine. The advertising in the mag is usually from the big production grocery store type wines.