The Royal Tannin Bombs

Look at that!  I’m posting the official Royal Tannin Bomb Wine of the Month (WOTM) selection within the same month to which it belongs!  Will wonders never cease…

So far three of our four WOTM winners have been French.  The only New World entrant was a California Pinot Noir.  Go figure.  I thought it time for another New World wine – Zinfandel.  After a year of studying this varietal our humble club here at The Royals can tell you without hesitation that there are a handful of really phenomenal Zinfandels, and not entirely from the usual suspects.  The predictable but disappointing Zinfandel producers of a by-gone era are Ridge, Ravenswood, Turley, and Martinelli.  All these famous Zin houses crafted the very best that Zin could offer in the late 80s and early 90s.  Somewhere along the way they lost the faith, quite sadly.  But with the death of every old regime we herald in the new blood with exuberant fanfare.  The wineries that now turn the head and produce affordable (unlike Turley and Martinelli) Zinfandel are Rosenblum, Four Vines, Robert Biale, and Klinker Brick.  These appear from our tastings to be capable of putting out the very finest in Zinfandel.  I’m not saying they are as good as the Lytton Springs Winery Lytton Springs Zinfandel of 1987 – that would be impossible to validate and serve little purpose.  But despite Ridge’s inability to make a good Zin after the mid-90s from the Lytton Springs vineyard that they purchased in 1990 – a sad little mystery to me – we must move our sights to these wine makers now delivering exceptional examples of the wonderful qualities that Zinfandel can achieve.

And with that we have this month’s WOTM.  Although at this very moment Rosenblum has given the green light to wine merchants everywhere to slash the 2006 price in half so the 2007 can hit the floor, it is the 2005 vintage with which I first fell in love.  The wine is Rosenblum Cellars Annette’s Reserve Redwood Valley Zinfandel, 2005.  In honour of this occasion I should pop one now, as I have a fair bit of ‘05 and a case of the ‘06.  But I won’t.  The ‘06 seems a little softer, plummier, and not quite as complex in the mouthfeel as the ‘05, but it is a wonderful wine as well.

Let me recount how I (the Bad Man) met Annette.  We (Tally-Ho and myself) visited the winery, Rosenblum Cellars, in their downtown Healdsburg location August 26, 2008, precisely one year ago today!  That was the very first time I ever touched an Annette to my lips.  I was instantly impressed with her complexity and lushness.  The wonderfully congenial steward helping us through the generous tasting noted that it wasn’t a big wine, and Tally-Ho concurred.  I was taken aback – I mean, to me this wine had it all!  Sure, I want to come across as loving the big hedonistic wines, but when the overall package has this much elegance, refinement, proportion, depth, extraction and persistence you just have to love it.  The fact that it does all that without clubbing you over the head is I suppose a point in its favour.  So Parker-esque philosophical biases set aside, this wine had legs to run.  I used to think I liked nose and finish best in experiencing a wine, but without that lush middle those are not satisfying enough as empty bookends.  Gladly enough, the Rosenblum Annette’s Reserve 2005 hits all the notes, as Tally-Ho says she is an arpeggio.  A truly “complete” wine.

Also in that same Rosenblum tasting in Healdsburg we hit the 2006 Rockpile Zin, which has 13% Petite Sirah, the 2005 Snows Lake Zin at $35 (I wrote “fig” in my tasting notes), the 2005 St. Peters Church at $55 (I wrote chocolate coffee tobacco), the 2006 Rockpile Syrah Fran’s Vineyard at $45 (I wrote awesome nose!) and the 2006 Petite Sirah Pickett Road at $35 (I wrote super dry and tannic).  My “this was worthy” plus (+) demarcation was next to only the Annette and the Syrah.  It was love at first sip, and there you have the spark that started the blaze.

Here are The Royal Tannin Bombs official blind tasting notes on the Rosenblum Annette’s Reserve 2005, in chronological order.

88 out of 100 – a consistent winner, top of the class, but a tiny bit lacking in heady structure

91 out of 100

TRTB: 91.0  Best of Tier I, per the Bad Man AND the average of all The Royal Tannin Bomb’s ratings and all our rankings, beating out the old and new Turley’s and old and new Martinelli’s as well as Helen Turley and Heidi Barrett all conducted in a single blind (AS ALWAYS) tasting!  At $30, and being a regular easy-to-find-on-the-shelf bottling, this is THE Zin to buy.  (tasted 20081024)

Deep scarlet purple in the glass, with a nose possessed (literally) of black currants, anise, tar, smoke, grapes, and a bitter sourness characteristic of Zins.  Medium-bodied, low (fine) tannins, good length, nice fruit, slightly overripe, soft.  Perhaps a little cloying, but great complexity in the palette in terms of the flavors and the nose.  This girl is all about finesse, she’s not a monster.  She makes Rancho Zabaco Reserve Zinfandel (one of our low-price favourites here at The Royals) taste like a cheap Chianti – this baby is not balls-out but the fruit flavors explode while ever maintaining impeccable balance.  Honestly.

We have to forgive, excuse and dismiss this particular showing – we got a corked bottle.  Pepper, mint, chocolate and dark fruit on the nose, overwhelmed by menthol and chloroform – smells like a gas station I (Bad Man) did coke in in the late 80’s.  Medium bodied, firm tannins, not enough fruit, but still tight acidity.  The finish was a little hollow, and the nose was just so acrid, even after 5 hours of decanting.

Dark chocolate, richly complex, cassis, black currant.  Moderate tannins, rough fruit, medium to full-bodied, big but awkward – needs time to lay down.

TRTB: 90.0  Aroma.Bouquet.Nose: Sweet maple, chocolate covered strawberries, leather, complex, pepper, light oak, sugar, dark berries.  Flavor.Body.Finish: Tight tannins, sugar, dark cherry and Mediterranean spice on the tongue, with a beautiful hot, spicy rolling finish. Intense layers of my (Bad Man’s) favourite fruit profile.  Overall.Notes.Final: TH: More spice than fruit but a decent effort.  Great spicy fruit – nice Zin lush and full in the mouth – yum!  BM: Beautiful dark fruit balance.  Layers of rich textured fruit define this wine.  I can’t stress that enough – if you want to experience “layers” in a wine, this is the Zin with which to do it.  In fact, speaking in specific and general, this is THE Zin.  (tasted 20090320)

TRTB: 86.0  Hint of burnt sugar, oak, spice box, tight nose with classic Zin sourness, blue/black fruit.  Excellent extraction and heat blended with fine round tannins under blue/black fruit with terrific middle Eastern spices, not a complex wine but a very drinkable effort.  TH: Slightly hot finish but all in all a very nice example of my kind of Zin.  The only fault of this wine is possibly a lack of complexity compared to the other two which is not a bad thing considering the contenders.  Maybe this is too young to compete.  BM: A little disjoint and definitely needs more time.  Heat.  (tasted 20090501)

TRTB: 88.5  Aroma.Bouquet.Nose: Smoked meat, toasted bread, plastic, vanilla bean, Swiss dark chocolate, currants, blackberries, floral, sawdust, rose, chemical glue.  Flavor.Body.Finish: Lush mouthfeel with a dark fruit profile, dusty fine tannins, dark brooding mélange of mixed berries supported by bright acid, followed by a terrific chocolate covered berry finish that goes and goes.  Overall.Notes.Final: TH: Structured and rich – the gothic novel of Zins insinuating and sinister, the Energizer (©) bunny of Zin finishes. BM: Pretty unadmirable nose, hollow a little on the third quarter of the palate, bitter.  (tasted 20090613)

Average TRTB: 89

So there you have it – some good, some not so good – all blind tastings.  An affordable consistent First Growth Zinfandel, if ever there was one.  Hurrah to the new king!

Trackback URL