I’m exploring Zinfandel for the next few months, and I’d heard good stuff about Black Chicken. Found this bottle for 38 bucks at Wegmans and took a shot at it.
Eye: a stunning, deep garnet with a slightly watery rim.
Nose: leather. Straight up cow’s ass leather. Raspberry, cherry cordial. Spice cake. Generous and well rounded.
Mouth: rich and smooth and warm. Cola, mixed berries, lavender and jasmine florals, dark chocolate, prunes. Good quality vanilla extract. This is just straight up comfort food with class. Absolutely chuggable, a real treat.
I’d love some suggestions for my next zin!
by Sea_Entertainment848
7 Comments
Try Turley or Sandlands
Love Biale. So understated and elegant for a California wine.
For my palate the “power trio” of Zin is Ridge, Bedrock, and Carlisle. All three have the fun bonus of putting out a huge number of different bottlings so there really is something for everyone.
I prefer Ridge Geyserville over the other bottlings due to the big slug of high acid carignan. But it’s hard to turn down Lytton Springs for balanced power, or their Pagani Ranch bottling which I also love. Ridge’s forte is elegance and ageability, Geyserville in particular can go 20+ years in good vintages and remain beautiful. They really don’t drink like zin as your father knew the grape, very structured and fresh.
For Bedrock, I like but don’t love-love the Bedrock Vineyard (which can almost drink more like a cab or brunello despite being mostly OVZ) and prefer Evangelho, Dolinsek, and their various Russian River bottlings. Monte Rosso and Old Hill Ranch are also world class. And then the Old Vine Zin is basically the best $25 dollar wine in CA. Bedrock’s version of the Sonoma Valley and Moon Mountain vineyards is going to match the Ravenswood Monte Rosso and Old Hill bottles for longevity — I think those wines will be singing loud at 20+ years.
Carlisle is more unabashedly full throttle than either of the two others but they manage to keep sufficient acid and freshness in the wines that the (on average) 15% alc usually stays in check. I like their Russian River Valley bottlings the most and usually prefer them with 6-8 years on them. The aromatics are INSANE at that point and the wines just knock you over with fruit and spice brilliance.
Bedrock and Carlisle also dab hands with Syrah if you’re interested, Carlisle more in the 90s CA style and bedrock more rhonish.
I love Ridge’s zins, but that already been mentioned. So I’ll throw out Frog’s Leap Zinfandel. One of the better zins I have had, with wonderful acidity and is very well balanced.
Trick suggestion but do try Under The Wire Bedrock Vineyard Sparkling Zinfandel. Absolutely remarkable wine, one of the best sparkling rosés I’ve ever had and definitely the most characterful and unique
Another tricky suggestion kind of hinted at by u/j_patrick_12 is seek out an old bottle of Ravenswood (pre 2001) at auction and you’ll be delighted. They regularly pop up on WineBid for under $50
What hasn’t been mentioned yet is A.Rafanelli. Close to impossible to find in retail but if you see it at auction or at a restaurant, give it a try. They only have one flagship Zin
Bucklin has a great zin, their ancient field blend, is really a historical view into how California wines were pre prohibition. It has tons of other grape varietals in a field blend that’s a great zin to experience.
Easton does a great zin (rinaldi) imo and 2016 is the current vintage at the moment, which I understand to be a pretty good one.