Tried this wine last night:
1. DavidBruce Zin Calif LateHrvstSweet (17.5%) LosGatos 1971: Light rather brownish color; rather raisened/pruney/overripe slight fusty/funky/earthy/root cellar very slight boysenberry/Zin rather complex bit alcoholic slight toasty/Fr.oak nose; soft slightly sweet strong raisened/pruney/overripe bit alcoholic/hot some dusty/OV very slight boysenberry/Zin rather dried-out/tired flavor w/ light gentle dried-out/bitter tannins; very long very raisened/pruney/overripe slightly sweet rather dried-out bit bitter light toasty/oak very slight boysenberry/Zin finish w/ mild dried-out tannins; a rather dried-out/tired overripe/pruney/raisened Zin that offers up little pleasure other than a nice trip down memory lane.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. In 1968, both Ridge and DavidBruce made the first LateHrvts Zins (at least labeled as such) in Calif. Both were pushing the boundaries to see what Zin could deliver. In '69, David Bruce made the first (to my knowledge) Zin Essence, a high-alcohol/very sweet Zin.
In '70 & '71, David made a series of LateHrvsts from Zin/Grenache/PetiteSirah/and Carignan. Some were labeled LateHrvst, LateHrvst Sweet, and LateHrvst Essence. All were above 15% alcohol, going up to 18.5% alcohol. They were huge/extracted/black as the ace of spades/high-alcohol/tons of new Fr.oak. The late John Brennan,who ran a tasting group in SanDiego, wrote two successive books of TN's on Calif wines in the mid-'70's. He still owes me for a pre-payment on the 3'rd Edition, which never made an appearance. John predicted these wines would peak in the 2020-2030 time frame. When I tasted thru all these around '81 and wrote an article for PhilipSeldon's Vintage Magazine on "David Bruce LateHrvst Wines at 10 yrs of age", many of them were already cracking up on the shoals of overripeness. In the late '80's, we tasted thru a bunch of them w/ Dr.Bruce on the rooftop pavillion at Kokoman Circus in SantaFe when David was here for SantaFe W&CF. Many were already pretty shakey. So much for wine experts and their predictions for wine maturity.
The grapes for all these DavidBruce's came from the MaryCarter vnyd down in the Gilroy/CienegaVlly area. I'm not sure that her vnyd still exists, I know that she does not still exist.
This was a wine from BlairSwartz's wine cellar. He still has one of the Grenaches down there. Not a pleasurable wine, but a nice trip down memory lane. Old folks like these sweet remembrances.
Tom