Don's Gillette's Wine Blog
Musings from our store's resident wine guru
Don has over thirty years experience in the wine industry. For the last eighteen years his attention has been focused on the growing local industry. Don has a large following of customers who search out his opinions (never in short supply!) on new releases and on what's currently most distinctive on our shelves. Others seek his insights on wineries and trends that are still under the radar. Read Don's full bio...
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Not Just a Football Weekend
Everybody knows that Football's Super Bowl was last Sunday. Not everybody knows however, that last Saturday was Zap: the Super Bowl of Zinfandel. I plan to write more about Zap '09 in the near future, as more of the wines poured there become available, but here is a snippet or two.
Zap '09 was well attended by wineries and surprisingly well attended by the trade. I don't know how strong public participation was, as the scheduling was changed a bit this year and we were gone before most of the public arrived.
Along with myself, NVWE sent three tasters: James Jackson (who has been to every Zap tasting); Zoe (who has been to several); and James Butler (his second visit). We have not met since to compare final notes, although we each had our favorite tables and were not shy about directing one another to them at the time.
I found a lot of impressive 2007s at Zap and was not surprised, as this vintage seems to be a fine one for almost every varietal. The only letdown was that many of the '07 Zins appeared a few weeks behind in their development, offering lots of richness and sweet-natured fruit, but less focus than they might have.
Gamba's three power-packed 2007 Zins illustrate the point. Their Estate (the flagship bottling) was extremely impressive, yet lacked thus far the chiseled definition and bright impression of zest it usually shows (the Estate was my favorite '06 at last years Zap). The Moratto also showed super richness and was much better balanced than usual, but it too seemed "bottly-shocky".
Their "Russian River Vineyard Cuvee", although a big boy, was a slightly less grandiose bottling. It tasted absolutely delicious and was considerably more evolved than Gamba's bigger Zins. I concluded that the big ones are just a hint backward and am convinced they will prove to be knockouts.
The Gambas will have to turn out brilliantly if they are to compete with my two other favorites for Best in Show. The 2007 Seghesio Cortina and Home Ranch bottlings were a stunning pair and may be the best Seghesio wines I have ever tasted. I will be after these two like a terrier the day they come out!