Before I get to this week’s featured wine, I wanted to answer a question I was asked recently: how do I find wines to review. My answer? Trial and error!
Right after we got married my wife and I became friends with someone who worked at a vineyard, so we took a tour, went to a few tastings, and became enamored with the whole wine making process. That was how we got into wine, and it’s a wonderful introduction, because you get to sample a bunch of different types of wines, and through trial and error figure out what you like. But you don’t have to go to a vineyard to figure this out; wine stores everywhere have tastings, the cost is minimal (often free!), and it gives you a baseline for what wines you like, and what you don’t.
Years of “practice” have shown me that I prefer complex, robust reds like Cabernet, Zinfandel, Syrah and Amarone. I’m also a fan of red blends (as you have seen from this blog) because it takes the best of several different varietals and brings out the best qualities in each to produce an interesting balance of flavors.
My featured wine this time around is Marietta Cellars Old Vine Red, Lot Number 59. I picked this one up at random at my local wine store just to see if we’d like it. WE DID. This is a nicely balanced Zinfandel blend, consisting of Sonoma/Mendocino CA grapes. It’s a beautiful garnet color in the glass, with aromas of cinnamon and blackberry. This is a dense, fruit-forward wine with juicy mixed berries, cinnamon, and spice on the finish. We picked up a 2010 for $10, but you could see it for $13, depending on where you buy it.
Tasty, reliable, smooth, inexpensive: I like it a lot, and I think you will too. Try it with pasta and red sauce, BBQ pork, or by itself. Based on price, taste, and on a 5 cork scale, I give it 3.5 corks!
