American wines are different. Zinfandel may be Primitivo (and I do love Primitivo) but in California it gets a different treatment. Sadly most of the Californian Zinfandel sold in the UK is White Zinfandel, which is usually overly sweet, confected, cheap pink wine aimed at teenage drinkers and people who don’t much like wine, but… Read More »
I have a confession to make, I love Zinfandel. Sadly if you say that in England people may think you mean White Zinfandel, the wine of choice for people who don’t much care for wine, but will drink it if it tastes more like a still strawberry alco-pop. Red Zinfandel can be heavenly, but it… Read More »
This wine has a cycling bear on the label. A bear on a penny farthing. What’s not to love? I admit my ‘buying by label’ adventures have rarely turned out well, so whilst I was happy to express delight at the label, I didn’t save it for best. It made its way to our street’s… Read More »
This Mountain View Monterey County Pinot Noir was a lovely colour, bright, light red. It could be mistaken for one of Spain’s more assertive pink wines. It smelled fresh and fruity, and that carried through to the taste, there were fresh squashed cherries and maybe some damsons. These tasted best when it was cool. As the… Read More »
I don’t drink much American wine outside the USA. It seems a little weird to import it to Europe. The really good Californian wines are absurdly expensive here and the ordinary wines are still ordinary, but with a pile of airmiles. This Cooper Point Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay arrived in a mixed case from Laithwaites, and… Read More »
So Leicester City‘s Foxes and their cheery horn blowing ceremony won’t be gracing the Premier League next season. Despite some late season excitement they remain in their rightful place in the Championship, ready to fight another day. That said, it was an excuse to buy a bottle of wine with a cute picture of a… Read More »
We had a bottle of Ironstone Vineyards Californian Zinfandel. It had been bought from Meijers in Detroit in 2001, when terrorism was a European problem and the world had banks that people didn’t worry about. It had rested quietly in a basement that had flooded a couple of times, before travelling south for a warmer… Read More »
We had a bottle of Cellar No. 8 Zinfandel 2005 from Meijer’s. It had travelled about a bit in cars and planes and had been subjected to a few changes in climate, none of which tend to improve a wine. It was dark garnet with just a hint of brick emerging on the edge. It… Read More »
The nice people at Don & Sons sent me a bottle of their Crusher Cabernet Sauvignon. Having listened to the last few balls of The Ashes it seemed sensible to drink The Crusher to celebrate crushing the Aussies! Cabernet Sauvignon is not my current favourite wine, having rather over-done it in the 90’s when varietals… Read More »
The nice people at Don & Sons sent me a bottle of their 2008 The Crusher Petite Sirah. I tend to drink a lot more Old rather than New World wines, and generally expect Zinfandel or Bordeaux varietals from California, so Petite Sirah was intriguing. The bottle was sealed with a Neocork bearing a fancy… Read More »