WTN: Acid Trip (or a really tough night)

[David M. Bueker]

• 1996 Ravenswood Red Table Wine Gregory Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (7/24/2008)
  volatile and hot - undrinkable - nearly 7 grams of acid/liter in a Cab? What the $#%?
• 1997 Ravenswood Pentimento - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Mountain (7/24/2008)
  volatile and flavorless. awful. It's actually worse that the Gregory.
• 1997 Ravenswood Zinfandel Monte Rosso Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (7/24/2008)
  volatile and mean - terrible - 7.3 g/l of acid. What the hell is this, Riesling acid in a zin? You've got to be kidding me.
  
  Joel Peterson lost his way in the late '90s. What a sad state of affairs.
  
  So I tried a different tactic...not so much...
  
• 1998 La Spinetta (Rivetti) Monferrato Pin - Italy, Piedmont, Monferrato (7/24/2008)
  Booooooorrrrrinnnnnggggggg. Barely any fruit & it's covered in wood.

Sorry to hear, I hope this wasn't penance for some sin...

[David M. Bueker]

I hope this wasn't penance for some sin...

Buying Ravenswood wines in the late '90s. If I taste all of them I can avoid purgatory. These were almost Coturri bad.

The perhaps you are Catholic with a capital C after all...

[David M. Bueker]

I used to be Irish Catholic. Now I'm an American.

These were almost Coturri bad.

hey,we got they were bad, no reason to resort to hyperbole.

These were almost Coturri bad.

David,

But were they "Over priced burgundy that I bought because it was hyped by a wine distributor who was stuck with too much of it and convinced me that the wine maker was 'an undiscovered talent' , and then I got it home and it tasted like cherry Kool-Aid with damp moss mixed in" bad. Hyperbole not withstanding.

[David M. Bueker]

Sam,

Despite reputations I have never had that kind of experience with Burgundy.

This was bad...really bad

Acid Trip (or a really tough night)

And here I was thinking you were posting on an electric KoolAid tasting.

[James Roscoe]

Acid Trip (or a really tough night)

And here I was thinking you were posting on an electric KoolAid tasting.

Have you been out in the desert heat too long?

I'm sorry to hear that. I've had several very fine Zins from Ravenswood. It's a shame they've lost their way.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

Acid Trip (or a really tough night)

And here I was thinking you were posting on an electric KoolAid tasting.

The bus came by and I got on
That's when it all began
There was cowboy Neil at the wheel
Of a bus to never ever land

I had 2 bottles of the '96 Gregory with friends. Very enjoyable. Sorry you didn't have the experience I had. I can solve your problem very easily!!

1997 Ravenswood Zinfandel Monte Rosso Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (7/24/2008)
volatile and mean - terrible - 7.3 g/l of acid. What the hell is this, Riesling acid in a zin? You've got to be kidding me.

I had a very nice one from a late-80's vintage in the mid-90's. Too bad...

1998 La Spinetta (Rivetti) Monferrato Pin - Italy, Piedmont, Monferrato (7/24/2008)
Booooooorrrrrinnnnnggggggg. Barely any fruit & it's covered in wood.[/list]

The 1996 was woody and stern if I remember correctly. OK drinking around 2002 or so, but nothing I would ever buy again. Funny, because other people must have felt the same. I think at the time I consumed it, there were still quantities of it still available at Lower Falls Wine. I looked...and passed.

[David M. Bueker]

I had 2 bottles of the '96 Gregory with friends. Very enjoyable. Sorry you didn't have the experience I had. I can solve your problem very easily!!

Even you wouldn't have liked this one. It was downright nasty.

That Ravenswood might have lost its way during that period doesn't surprise me too much. I was an admirer of Ravenswood's Zins during the early 80's, there was one Old Hill (1981?) that was particularly memorable. When Ravenswood went public in 1999, I bought a few shares and was treated to a nice lunch in Sonoma, the first (and maybe last) shareholders' luncheon as they were bought about by Constellation in 2001. We were shown some charts that looked great if you were a numbers person but made me wonder how they could maintain quality - huge production increases in the few years previous, mostly using fruit from Lodi. I suppose they wanted good sales figures in order to raise maximum funds from their IPO but it's never a good idea to expand any business that fast. They still hadn't moved to their new winery, so it had to be a strain and I wondered how they were coping. I guess the answer is clear from these wines.

All of that said, I wonder about those acid levels. You didn't mention how much alcohol these wines had but "achieving" that kind of acid is not an easy thing to do in California if the fruit is anything close to ripe - unless the acid was added, but why would they have done that? The only explanation that comes to mind is completely inept winemaking.

[David M. Bueker]

All of that said, I wonder about those acid levels. You didn't mention how much alcohol these wines had but "achieving" that kind of acid is not an easy thing to do in California if the fruit is anything close to ripe - unless the acid was added, but why would they have done that? The only explanation that comes to mind is completely inept winemaking.

Alcohols ranged from 13.5-14.5 for the 3 bottles (I have a 1995 Old Hill in the cellar that's 15% with 8 g/l of acidity), so inept winemaking seems to be the issue. I wonder if Peterson got hung up on trying to present wines with freshness despite high ripeness/alcohol, added acidity & ended up with something unstable.

I'm sorry to hear that. I've had several very fine Zins from Ravenswood. It's a shame they've lost their way.

-Paul W.

As have I. Yes, that is a shame.

• 1998 La Spinetta (Rivetti) Monferrato Pin - Italy, Piedmont, Monferrato (7/24/2008)
  Booooooorrrrrinnnnnggggggg. Barely any fruit & it's covered in wood.

This isn't a winery that I really follow, but I've had a few bottles of the 1998 and found it pretty different to how you describe it. Although certainly a style that I find less appealing today, with a rich and rather modern/international style, I still enjoyed its abundant fruit which worked well as there was a decent structure to it. Whatever might be said of its style, I would never have thought it would end up 'fruitless'. I have one bottle left earmarked for drinking before the end of the year, as well as a couple of the 1999, so I will get a chance to look again soon.

[David M. Bueker]

This isn't a winery that I really follow, but I've had a few bottles of the 1998 and found it pretty different to how you describe it.

Which is exactly why I opened it. I was expecting a ripe, fleshy wine & got something that was not that at all. In retrospect I wonder if there was some fruit scalping from a poor cork. There was no obvious TCA, but I wasn't expecting anything like what I got.