This is a wine that I hadn’t even heard of until I saw it on the shelf and I picked it up on a pure whim, but I’m glad I did.  While I hadn’t heard of this wine, I did have some confidence in giving it a try because of the distributor, Hand Picked Selections.  Their focus is on affordably-priced wines with above average quality and they do a pretty good job at that.

This 2005 Farleigh Zinfandel offers a little more regional diversity than we’ve found in many of the California Zins that we’ve tasted.  Rather than a single-vineyard wine, the grapes in this one come 50% from Sonoma County and 50% from San Luis Obispo County. 

The appearance is a brilliant, bright red with light opacity.  It’s appealing in the glass, which I know is a little thing but everything counts when you’re adding up the overall experience of consuming a particular wine.  More important than the visual, the aroma is fabulous. It has a lot of heat— not surprising with a whopping 15.9% alcohol level.  Cherry, leather, cedar and herbal notes blend with the alcohol heat to make a delightful bouquet.

The palate is really interesting too.  It starts with a peppery blackberry then a super-fresh strawberry flavor explodes on the tip of your tongue before quickly fading and leaving an acidic tingling feeling.  There is a tartness to the finish.  In fact, I might describe this wine as a SweetTart experience.  It’s fun, interesting and enjoyable.

The score came out to an 89 and at $14 it is definitely worth a try.

Wine: Charles Underwood Farleigh
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 15.9%
Rating: 89
Price Paid: $13.99