WTN: Rafanelli

A. Rafanelli 1999 Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

Purchased in March 2002, early days in our wine-cellaring. As I recall, the Rafanelli internet presence was primitive-to-nonexistent at the time, which meant that to get on the mailing list, I wrote a longhand letter and sent it to the winery. I think we must have ordered three Cabs and three Zins, which felt exorbitant; this was the last of those bottles. CT notes suggested it should be on or approaching its last legs, but in fact it's merely in vigorous middle age (like us, come to think of it). Intensely flowery iodine-laced blackberry fruit opening into a complex midpalate of cedar/redwood and anise, among other things; ripe but energetic, tannins nicely softened but still present. Each glass is different, but they're all vivid and harmonious. I suspect bottles in comparably slow cellars will continue to develop, and certainly won't fall apart, for another decade. At $36.00 in 2002 this was preposterously good value. For some reason, we let ourselves fall off that mailing list without ever buying more. Sad!

have been a big fan of Dave's zins for a number of years but I think his cabs are even better, and both the zins and the cabs age quite nicely....I too had to send a handwritten note requesting to be put on the mailing list..When we visited Dave, I noted taht he had quite a few Labs..We too were Lab owners so I put my note on a card with a picture of our yellow Lab on it and sent it off..Whether that helped or not, who knows? But he put us on the mailing list.

Being sans Lab, I think I just told the story of enjoying one of their wines at dinner at Madrona Manor. I had no idea how these things worked; it was the first time I'd ever tried to join a mailing list. But I remember paying close attention to my penmanship in a way I hadn't for years!

I visited Rafanelli sometime around 2000 and have fond memories of the wines. Strangely enough, considering how hard these wines were to obtain on the east coast, a recent vintage of their zin has shown up in a local shop (a chain, at that). I was keen to pick some up until I noticed it was almost $40 a bottle - a bit more than I am willing to pay for a zinfandel.

Joe; I feel your pain..regrettably $38-40 is the price of admission for a number of zins these days, not just Rafanelli.. Bedrock,Carlisle, Scherrer, Ridge, Turley come to mind..To be fair, some of the basic offerings do come in at <$30 for some of these wineries

Jon,

I suppose that is why I don't pay much attention to CA wines anymore. Having said that there is a Marietta zin that Tom Hill liked a few bins over from the Rafanelli and it is sub $20. Dashe and even Ridge still manage to put out stuff at reasonable prices.

I am with you Joe! Just found a very nice Pinot Noir from NZ for about $22 Cdn and I am always on the lookout for similar values from Spain and Portugal. Also not to forget SA, this months Focus.