Tried these 4 ystrday:
1. CarnerosCreekWnry Zin EschenVnyd/AmadorCnty (13.1%) Napa 1978: Very dark color w/ slight browning; some spicy/black cherry/briary/Zinsome cedary/pencilly/oak rather dusty/OV bit peppery rather complex nose; tart/tangy/dried out/bitter earthy/dusty/OV slight briary/black cherry/boysenberry fairly cedary/oak flavor w/ rather hard/dried-out tannins; quite an interesting complex oldZin nose but pretty tired/dried-out on the palate.
______________
2. GiuseppeMascarello e Figlio Dd'OC: Barbaresco Bernardotti in Comune di Treiso (13%) Mauro Mascarello/Monchiero 1978: Fairly dark color w/ some bricking; very fragrant violets/tarry/floral/pungent complex oldNebb nose; very acid painful slight tarry/pungent/floral/violets very tannic dried-out flavor; quite an attractive old B/B nose but very tannic/painful on the palate.
______________
3. Ridge CabernetSauvignon Calif/MonteBello (EG; 12.8%; Bttld: Oct 75; Fined: fresh egg whites; Drk: 6/76-6/80: PD) Cupertino 1973: Dark color w/ some bricking; strong herbal/classic CS/earthy some cedary/pencilly/toasty/oak bit dusty/earthy slight brett/horsecollar fairly complex old-timey Calif Cab nose;; quite tart/tannic/dried-out/metallic some herbal/CS/dusty/earthy some cedary/pencilly/oak flavor w/ hard/dried-out tannins; quite an interesting nose but pretty dried-out/tannic on the palate.
______________
4. Hamel Syrah SonomaCnty (14.4%; 80% AlegriaVnyd/20% BradfordMtn; Vitis Allobrogica?) KevinHamel/Geyserville 1994: Med.dark color w/ light bricking; strong blackberry/Syrah/spicy/boysenberry some bretty/horsecollar bit earthy slight Rhonish/roasted quite complex nose; rather soft quite bretty/horsecollar/barnyardy some blackberry/Syrah/spicy/peppery bit dried-out tannic flavor; quite an interesting bit Rhonish Syrah but too bretty/unclean on the palate for my tastes.
___________________________
A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. CarnerosCreek: This btl was a leaker, ullaged almost half the wine away. Yet there was no signs of excessive exposure to air, no VA, no vinegar....just an old tired dried-out Zin.
Back in '73-'78 or so, FrankMahoney made some outstanding Zins from Esola & Eschen vnyds. Most of them tended to be on the overripe side, above 14% alcohol. This one was not. Frank gave up on Amador Zin because he didn't care for the overripe character they often showed, though he continued to take Cab from ErnieEsola's vnyd for almost 10 yrs.
______________
2. Hamel: The Vitis Allobrogica reference on the label is reference to a grape species that was once thought to be distinct, or descended from, vinifera, up in the French/Suisse alps. Syrah was once thought to be from Vitis Allobrogica, but I think the tinking now is that it's just vinifera.
______________
3. These wines all came from the recently deceased BlairSwartz cellar. His daughter likes wines, so when she comes to town to see her Mom, we go downstairs to Blair's cellar to haul up a case of wines to try.
Tom