We tasted last week at Pig+Fig some Older Zins:
1. ScherrerVnyd Zin Old&Mature Vines/AlexVlly (14.3%; Plntd: 1912; U/U) Sebastapol 1993: Rather dark color w/ little bricking; quite spicy/classic Scherer/peppery strong raspberry/blackberry/Zin fairly bright some cedary/pencilly fairly complex lovely nose; fairly tart/tangy bright/raspberry/Zin/spicy light vanilla/oak classic Scherrer balanced complex flavor w/ light smooth tannns; in wonderful shape for an old Scherrer Zin w/ little signs of drying out; maybe just a little lost in intensity.
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2. Tulocay Zin PhillipsVnyd/NapaVlly (15.4%) Napa 1982: Dark color w/ light browning; rather tired/dried out light raspberry/Zin some cedary/pencilly/oldZin strong Am.oak/vanilla straightforward Napa Zin bit simple surprisingly youthful nose; bit hot/alcoholic strong ripe/blackberry/Zin/spicy slightly dried out flavor w/ light soft tannins; showing a bit of age on the palate but surprisingly youthful for a 40+ Zin. $nc (BSvSG)
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3. JosephPhelpsVnyds Zin AlexVlly (14.7%) 1978: Dark color w/ some browning; some vanilla/Fr.oak bit Bdx-like raspberry/Zin/spicy classic Phelps nose; fairly strong raspberry/Zin some cedary/pencilly rather Bdx-like classic Phelps flavor w/ light gentle tannins; resembles somea Bdx red; speaks strongly of Phelps winemaking; starting to fade a bit on the palate but still in rather good shape for a near-50 yr old Zin; still a pleasure to drink. $nc (BSvSG)/$7.49 (KK)
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4. JosephSwanVnyds Zin Sonoma (TW) Forestville 1979: Med.color w/ some browning; strong cedary/pencilly/vanilla/old Zin bit hot/alcoholic fairly classic Swan vanilla bit dried out slight raspberry/Zin bit complex fully mature nose; fairly tart rather dried-out/tired/astringent light raspberry/Zin somewhat tired flavor w/ tired/dried-out tannins; tastes like an old Swan Zin; fully mature but rather tired/dried-out on the palate; still some life but a pretty tired Swan on its last legs. $nc (BSvSG)
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5. Ravenswood Zin DickersonVnyd/NapaVlly (13.9%; Pckd: Sept 23 1989; Bttld: July 15/1991; 1000 cs; TA: ).78%) Sonoma 1989: Med.dark color w/ some browning; strong Dickerson/eucalyptus/minty/pungent some pencilly/cedary bit herbal rather peppery/backberry/Zin slightly dried-out some complex/Ravenswood nose; rather herbal/bit earthy some light eucalypts light blacberry/Zin bit dried-out/tired bit complex flavor w/ light drying tannins; speaks strongly of an old Ravenswood Zin and lightly of Dickerson Zin. $nc (BSvSG)/ $15.19 (KK)
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6. DeLoachVnyds Zin RRV (13.8%; 1460 cs; EB) SantaRosa 1987: Dark color w/ some browning color; very strong vanilla/Am.oak rather ripe/blackberry/Zin/boysenberry/ripe bit complex nose w/ some complexity; soft fairly ripe blackberry/boysenberry fairly strong vanilla/oak some complex rather mouthfilling flavor w/ light gentle tannins; lots of ripe/boysenberry Zin fruit; a fully mature older DeLoach Zin that still offers up lots of pleasure. $nc (BSvSG)/$8.89 (KK)
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More flockleburp from TheBloodyPulpit:
1. These old Zins were all provided by Stacey from her Dad's (Blair Swartz) cellar.
Tulocay is a wnry founded in 1975 by Bill Cadman out on Coombsville Rd North of Napa. Mostly his reputation was built on the Pinot Noirs he crafted. I first discovered Bill's wines from an Amador Zin I found up in Denver at a very good price & bought a bunch of it. He also made some very attractive Chards & Pinot Blancs. The wnry is still in business & now run by his daughter, Brie.
The Ravenswood Dickerson Zin (and Ruby Cabernet) always had a very intense herbal/eucalyptus character from the row of eucalyptes trees along the driveway. Age has taken a bit of toll on the eucalyptus character but it's still lurking in there. Quite a nice expression of a fully mature Ravenswood Zin.
I fell in love w/ the DeLoach wines early on, mostly from is vnyd-designate Zins. Cecil DeLoach was a fireman down in SanFrancisco when he bought the Barberi Ranch in 1975 & started making wine. Mostly the focus was on old-vine vnyds. He was a sort of pre-cursor to Mike Officer/Carlisle; though Mike took those Zins to the next level. In 2003, Cecil sold the wnry to the Boisset family. In 2003 and then founded his Hook&Ladder wnry in 2005. He continues to be involved, making 4 other labels in addition to H&L. I still like Cecil's wines, but don't follow them very closely like I once did.
Tom