Thursday, May 16, 2019

Old ZInfandel

Of all the wines I have tasted, I still love Old Zinfandel the best.

Old Zinfandel (or "Old Zin") is a red wine made specifically from old vines that are, for the most part head trained (e..g single plants either originally attached to a post or grown up around one) versus the trellis trained that pretty much is all that goes in place any more (there are reasons for that, of course:  It is easier to manage the vines and the production is more reliable year after year).  In some cases, the vines can be from 40 to 80 years old.

I cannot tell you fully why I like them - I like red wine in general and zinfandels in particular.  And perhaps it is just something in my head.  But I like the thought of drinking wine that is pulled from vines that have been around for a while (in some cases, longer than I have) planted in the old style (again, I am becoming more and more "old style" as well.

Two of my favorites are Bogle's Old Zin and Gnarly Head Old Zin:




Do you have a favorite wine?

8 comments:

  1. Sadly, I do not. We've tried wine (and champagne) a couple time, a d I always ended up with a headache, so we gave up.

    Glad you can enjoy them. :-)

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  2. TB I used to LOVE the earthy reds! I even had a palate and could pick out some of the flavours like earth, oak, flowers, some fruits, etc.

    I can't handle the stuff any more though; I dunno why that is. I can drink a little rot gut scotch but even the finest reds these days turn me right off. I would actually love to sit down with a glass of red the size of a gold fish bowl … but age betrays me I guess.

    Red wine is the beverage of heroes and warriors... which probably explains my lately-acquired aversion to it.

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  3. Learning how to make wine is on my someday list, but other than that I know little about them. I've heard of zinfandel, of course, but didn't know about old vine zin. Interesting!

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  4. I don't know about heroes and warriors as a requirement, but I like Old Vine Zins also. I've had the two you posted about as well as Silk Road's. Went to Lodi in January and visited wineries. Put a couple of cases in the closet for special occasions.

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  5. Linda, many wines now have sulfites for preservation, which tend to give me a headache as well.

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  6. Glen, I have become a lot less of a wine fan over time because for a lot of them, it gives me a headache as well (all too easily).

    Heh heh. Heroes and warriors indeed.

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  7. Leigh, Wine making has been on my list for years as well (sadly, it one thing that seems to get farther and farther in the rear view mirror).

    I did a little bit of reading - the whole concept of "Old Vine" is (like som many other things from California) controversial. I will just ignore the controversy about how old a vine has to be and just drink.

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  8. Juvat - I have not heard of Silk Road but I will look into it. Sadly, we have to buy it by the bottle here.

    Thanks for stopping by!

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