So, here we go reviewing an "Old Vine" or as this wine says "Ancient Vine" Zinfandel. Today's review is on the 2012 Charleston Peak "Ancient Vine" Barrel Reserve - Zinfandel. In past reviews of the varietal I have attempted to educate some of you concerning the term "Old Vine" and what it means. As a refresher and for those of you who are interested I will put that information out once again here. On one hand the term can mean a lot on the other hand the term can mean absolutely nothing and is simply used as a marketing tool in order to convince you that you are drinking (and paying for) something special. This is all because there is no law or rule that dictates what percentage of "Old Vine" juice is in the bottle. In reality you only need 1% of "Old Vine" juice (whatever that is) in the bottle and 99% of new vine juice to complete the bottle. By the way, there is no legal or generally agreed definition for "old" when it comes to Grapevines. Now, imagining for a minute that you are a wine producer I want you to think about just how many people don't know the information that I just put out and because of their ignorance you can double the price of you regular Zinfandel. Think about that profit. Before I move on I will tell you a few more things about this wine. The wine itself costs $29.99 and came in at 16.9% Alcohol. I will talk more later about that. Getting back to the "Old Vine" for a minute I can tell you that an employee working at the tasting counter in the winery informed me that all of the juice in this wine was all "Old Vine" which I find hard to believe but okay. Also according to the Pahrump Valley Winery the juice for this wine is from vines that are over 100 years old. I think you get the point now. This wine spent a full 18 months in both French and American Oak barrels. The grapes for our review wine are grown in Lodi California. Let's move on now to further describing our "Old Vine" Zinfandel.
Opening up this section I want to tell you about something that I will be the first to admit is weird to say and that is the bottle itself including the mouth appeared abnormally thick which wasn't a problem mind you as it actually brought the thought (or belief) to mind that I was drinking a serious wine which I might very well be doing.
Switching quickly now to the Bouquet I will tell you that it is not shy, elusive or for that matter, fading. Raisin is the first of the notes up front that power their way to the top. Sweet Prune, Oak and Black Licorice are just as prevalent though. Deep and dark (and I do mean deep and dark) Cocoa is present and topples any deep and dark Cocoa that you have ever smelled. This Zinfandel is presenting to me the best Bouquet of any Zinfandel that I have ever (yep ever) experienced....period!
Let's get to the Palette now because there is so much that I have to say. Oh my gosh, where do I begin? Let's talk about the Blackberry / Raisin that hits you immediately upon taking a tasting. Let me throw in that the wine is very fruit forward which might be interpreted as sugar on the Palette. Let me also tell you that according to the winery the residual sugar in this wine is 0 grams. How about a leather note, if you have ever heard the term "Leather" described in a wine, this is the epitome of that term. This term leather, does not bring to mind a tough Leather that brings a rustic note to the Palette, oh no. This Leather is one of a well broken in Leather jacket that you are wearing at the Beach on a cold Winters night. The scent of "I know this jacket and it's been through everything with me". The note on the palate is super nice. Let's talk about the note of Raisin that is ever present.
Folks......please......don't think that this note is some cheap box
raisin that you are tasting. This Raisin that I am talking about is a
fresh pre-boxed Raisin that hasn't been released to the market. Super fresh, super juicy, not stale nor hard. Do you think that a Prune note would be wonderful in this varietal?
Well, if you do you are in luck because a fresh and bright Prune is presented on the Palette in such
a way that it brings a sort of brightness to the Palette.This note is slightly on the fruit forward side yet maintains itself rather nicely. The Oak, both American and French could not have imparted a better impact on this wine than it did.Not too strong and not weak, the Oak really was on display here. The Oak is not dominant at all yet you taste the Oak on the back end of the palate in a way
that I have never experienced before in all my wine tasting as well as reviewing,. That is saying a lot. Now for a big question, Is the wine sweet? The answer is, yes. Does this sweetness deter you from loving the wine? The answer is, no. Did I tell you about the Cocoa on the Palate yet? Well as the comedian Joan Rivers always said......"can we talk"? An absolutely.....outstanding deep Cocoa note is presented on the Palette. Every note is expressed to near perfection in this wine guys. There is also a note of fresh Bing Cherry that shines through in the
background that adds to the depth of this wine and elevates it to
another level on the Palette. How about Black Licorice, would you like that in this wine? I hope you do because the very same note on the Nose translates right
on to the Palette in an incredible and extraordinary way. If you are looking for any sort of spice here, you will find the wine
does present a Black Pepper spice on the finish. Combining that spice
with the other notes sets your mouth off with a level of juiciness that
simply begs for more. The bottom line here is that there is a semi dark, fruit forward type depth to this wine that is unmatched in my opinion by any other expression of this varietal. I could go on folks but I think it is best to just end this part of the
review right here and move to the closing paragraph, so let's do just
that.
Big, bold and in your face!I don't use these phrases lightly to describe this wine. A near perfect expression of the varietal. You can certainly say that this wine is "jammy" and you would be correct. What you can not say is that this wine does not hold to the varietal established standards for the varietal because it certainly does. This is in reality a complex wine although it is hard to think of it as that because it is really fruit forward. There is a lot of depth here that that the wine has to show off. If
there was ever a wine that could stand up to the word "robust" you have
met it. This wine takes all of its flavors (or notes) and blasts it's way through the Palette with all of them. am going to straight out tell you that I could have easily finished the
entire bottle, easily. I had to "cut myself off" however as I was
afraid of the almost 17% Alcohol level so I ended up drinking only a little
more than half of the bottle. As I am not one to drink the next day as I don't really drink a lot
believe it or not so the other half went down the drain unfortunately,
what a waste. Folks it is time that I wrap all this up now. I could simply give this wine it's rating and be done but that is too
simple and the wine is deserving of more. I can't say enough great
things about this wine. If I simply tell you my rating of this wine that
would be way too simple an ending. If I went on however I think I would
be simple repeating myself and that would be unworthy of me and the
wine. With all this being said I am going to confidently tell you that I
loved the wine, I have never had a better Zinfandel in my reviews. On
The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I give this wine a whopping 95 points. What an absolutely incredible Zinfandel!
The Desert Wine Guy
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