We tried last night in our tasting:
3. Ridge Calif Zin CoastRange (6% PS; 12.7%; Bttld: April'75; Drk: 4/75-4/76-4/77)
1973: Light color w/ slight bricking; lovely cedary/pencilly/Am.oak/old Zin light
raspberry/spicy slight earthy/dusty fairly complex nose; soft/smooth/gentle
somewhat light/raspberry/spicy/Zin light cedary/pencilly elegant/complex flavor;
med. light/raspberry/spicy slight earthy some pencilly/cedary/old Zin finish w/
no tannins; a smooth/gentle/poplished Zin that still speaks soundly of Zinfandel;
not just a survivor but a genuine pleasure to drink. $2.99
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And my original tasting note from late May 1975:
6. Medium purple color; strong berry/Zin nose with a little smoke that fades; good
acidity; a strong rich grapey Zinfandel flavor; long finish of grape; little
complexity; a strong rich grapey Zin and a very good buy; better than the '72 CR
and almost as good as the '72 LyttonSprings.
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And the usual profundities from TheBloodyPulpit:
1. Holy crap...this wine is not just a survivor....it's a lovely wine to drink.
Who'd thunk....a 35yr old bottom-line Zin. Susan had JohnHopkins & Yvette for dinner
a month ago and he gifted me w/ this bottle from outta the past. I was mildly
amused by John's gesture as I was absolutely certain that this was a totally shot
wine but, given my propensity for vinous archeology, would find something interesting
in the wine. I started hearing quiet murmurs trailing me as I poured around the
room. I was flabbergasted when I took my first sniff...some of that oldZin complexity
but there was still a fair amount of raspberry/Zin fruit remaining. Awwwright...but
it'll be dead & dried out on the palate. Nope....still a nice amount of fruit left
as it kinda whisped across the palate like a gentle zephyr. Holy crap....this
ancient relic still lives!!! It's damn good wine...and not for just a 35yr old Zin.
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2. There is, of course, a story behind this wine. When we tried this wine in May'75
(note the lack of an agglutinative style in my tasting notes back then), I was
pretty impressed by the wine, especially for the price (The MonteBello '73 Zin
was $4.49 then). After we tasted it, I took orders for it and came up with an
order for 65-70 cases of the stuff. A quick call to PhilReich at Boulder's Liquor
Mart landed me probably most of Colorado's supply I would guess. I rented a covered
U-Haul trailer, hitched it up to my trusty Slant6 Dodge Dart '68 and headed North.
It was not a popular move w/ the spouse in authority. Loaded up the 70 cases
and headed back. Made probably 35 m.p.h. heading over LaVetaPass. Got it home
just fine (the NewMexico law then read that you could bring in to the State a
"reasonable amount" for one's own use. I considered 70 cases damned reasonable) and
the wine out to their happy homes. There was probably more Ridge Zin, per capita,
in LosAlamos than anyplace in the Nation outside of Cupertino. John probably got
a whole case and this was probably his last surviving bottle. I probably got only a
few btls and drank them up over the next yr or two, certain that the wine would not
go anywhere. I had another one sometime in the early '90's and it was on its last
legs. Good memories from a time long ago.
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3. This was back in the early '70's when I had first discovered the Ridge Zins that were
in good supply up at LiquorMart. We had a lot of people from LosAlamos continually
travelling up to RockyFlats, so there was a pretty continual stream coming back
from there....Ridges, DavidBruces, SutterHomes (remember...this was back when they
actually made good wine), BaroletBurgundies, Cote-Rities, the whole shebang.
The CoastRange line was bottom-line blended by Ridge for an inexpensive Ridge
experience for just a few yrs in the early-'70's. They even made a Ridge CoastRange
PinotNoir that was pretty underwhelming. This '73 Zin was really nice drinking but
not terribly highly regarded. It got only a 82 from WineSpectator, an 84 from
RobertFinegan, an 80 from RobertLawrenceBalzer, and a miserable 79 from RobertParker,
who characterized it as a "low-brow Crljenak Kastelanski".
Not sure where the grapes for this wine came from, but would guess it had a fair
amount of SantaCruzMtnZin in it, probably some Sonoma, probably some Mendocino; the
usual sources for Ridge back then. Even though that Draper guy was a relative
unknown, and had a bit/lot less gray in his hair back then; it was clear he knew a
thing or two about making wine. I think it was only that following Fall that I finally
made it up to MonteBelloRidge and met Paul. He was also entertaining one Jerimiah
Tower, along w/ a bunch of his froggie friends. I think he (Jerimiah) was a bit miffed
that Paul was spending so much time answering my questions. At the time, I had no
idea who JerimiahTower was and that I was horning in on a Celebrity tour.
TomHill (trippin' down memory lane)