These were all blind tasted. These only represent my notes - there were a bunch of us at dinner and we enjoyed BBQ chicken, ribs and sausage, so after a while my notes were definitely lacking:
Cline 2002 Ancient Vines: fish oil on the nose, but sweet. Very tannic. Not a bad wine but surprised I didn't like it more.
Ridge 2002 Lytton Springs: mild and a bit muted, but went well with bbq - surprisingly not a big wine considering all the petite syrah in there.
Peterson 1999 Dry Creek - Basil, herbal and spice nose. Spicy on the palate, with a bit of peppermint. My #3 wine of the night. The overall group's #3 wine of the night.
Nalle Dry Creek 2000 - Syrah-like and even a bit like a massive Pinot - VERY tasty and very different from all the others - quite refined. This was my WOTN and also was voted #1 by the group. I would definitely buy this wine again big time. Yum.
Kunde 2001 Sonoma - Muted but silky smooth. Was the mildest wine of the night. Didn't stand out.
Trinitas 2002 Old Vine - Very much like a traditional zin - sweet but not overbearing. Quite good.
Ridge 3 Valley 2002 Sonoma - Lots of berries on the nose and lots more on the palate - very dry yet sweet as well. An interesting wine. Liked it alot more than the Lytton, which surprised me. This was voted the #2 wine of the night by the group.
Ravenswood Sonoma Country Old Vine 2001 - Hot, but I liked it - Blueberries on the palate and even seemd a bit top heavy - kinda disappointed a bit on the finish.
Rancho Zabaco Reserv 2001 Sonoma County - Very earthy - picked up lots of dirt ish flavors on the nose. Also quite hot and very spicy. Surprised it wasn't better.
Rosenblum Oakley 2002 Contra Costa - VERY fruity (one attendee called it a fruit cannon!), almost like drinking kool-aid or jello, sweet and yummy. I loved it and would buy this again. My #2 wine of the night
Rosenblum California Vintners Cuvee XXVI - there was no year on this wine (it was quite odd and we noticed that right at the end of the tasting). This had an unmistakeable metallic or tinny nose - it was a very big wine and seemed to be trying too hard. No finesse here.
This was really fun - it has been some time since I really explored Zins and makes me want to get back into them.
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