Rich had brought in a 2004 Amarone from Cesare. He was somewhat reticent with his praise, but I frankly enjoyed it. Definitely the raisiny-character of an Amarone, with a good structure of earthyness and a nice fuzzy mouth feel. Over the hour, it opened up nicely. 90 points.
2006 DiArie Primitivo (Shennadoah Valley) DiArie is a producer I have generally been happy with-their Grandpere vineyard Zins are quite earthy and rustic and savory and complex without being over the top in aolcohol or jamminess.
Thus, their Primitivo was a bit of a dissapointment.
On the positive side, the mouthfeel was relatively light, medium bodied at most. The alcohol (14.8% nominal value) did not dominate. And, there was certainly bright raspberry/zinberry "fruit." BUT; The relative thin body combined with a distinct sweet, kool-aid tutti-fruiti character I'm not sure I cared for very much. Others liked it more, but...I would have liked to seen more spicy character and rustic earthyness.
Either it was getting better or because of the slight buzz I was looking to be positive, I think it got a little better later on, but we are talking pretty sweet and simple here.
Overall, I would say this wine reminds me of a much more drinkable version of Rombauer's awful, awful kool-aid Zinfandel of past vintages.
83 points?
We also slurped up a bottle of 2002 Arrowood, whose mouthfeel and structure overcomes my aversion to green-ness quite nicely. 91 points!