WTN: ChristianBros Zin Port '80.....(short/boring)

Shared this at BacchusBadBoys last Thurs night:
1. TheChristianBros Port Zin NapaVlly (Released July 1 1985 to celebrate Brother Timothy's 50 yrs in the NapaVlly; 18%; 5 yrs aging in barrel & btl) Mount LaSalle 1980: Dark color w/ some browning; rather herbal/alcoholic/Portish rather overripe/Zin/chocolaty fairly complex nose; lightly sweet boysenberry/Zin/chocolaty quite alcoholic/pure grape brandy/rather hot/raw flavor w/ hot tannins; very long rather hot/alcoholic/porty/fumey some chocolaty/boysenberry/overripe Zin finish w/ light tannins; dominated by the pure grape brandy & not a whole lot of complexity; tastes like a cheap Calif Port that overstayed its welcome.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. This Port was made by Brother Tim from his Zin grapes gropwn at their LaSalle Estate on MtVeeder, at what is now the Hess Estate. It was fortified by pure neutral grape spirits they distilled there. I'm not convinced that Ports fortified w/ pure neutral grape spirits mature as well as those fortified w/ pot-still brandies, with their greater concentrations of congeaners. Just not a very thrilling aged Port. Far outshown by the Pig+Fig cherry/almond tart.
Tom

[Jenise]

Hopefully that's your last bottle. I've had some impressive old Quadys over the years--do they use a different method (pot-stilled), do you know?

Hopefully that's your last bottle. I've had some impressive old Quadys over the years--do they use a different method (pot-stilled), do you know?

My understanding is that Andy uses continuous column/pure grape brandy which is not pot-still.
Back in the '70's when winemakers were wanting to make Porto-like port in Calif (Woodbury/JWMorris/Praeger/etc),
some of them made a big deal out of using pot-still brandy, which is distilled at a lower temperature and has more
congeners (higher alcohols and other stuff), in addition to pure ethanol. They felt it made for a more authentic Porto-like port
and aged into a more interesting old Port.
Tom

Christian Bros. - that's a blast from the past.

I'll guess that wine was not expensive and not intended for long keeping..

Christian Bros. - that's a blast from the past.

I'll guess that wine was not expensive and not intended for long keeping..

Well, Peter... it was expensive... as far as Christian Bros Ports went. Maybe $10-$12. But it was intended to be something special to honor Brother Tim. No reason not to believe it wouldn't age.
Tom