I feel guilty right now. Guilty that I haven’t shared this review with you sooner. You see, I take my tasting notes in sessions where I taste several wines in a category in one sitting. Then later I’ll do some background research on the wines and write up the review along with my tasting notes. I actually have tasting notes for about 50 wines that I have yet to write about on this site. But some wines are such a great value that I really shouldn’t wait to post them here. This is one such wine, and I’m guilty of holding back that tip… until now.
Brazin currently has only one wine available, the Brazin Old Vine Zin. And since they currently only produce this one wine, if it says Brazin on the bottle, you can be sure you’ve got the right one.
Much of the best Zinfandel comes from the Lodi region, just south of Sacramento, CA. And Zinfandel from this region tends to be more affordable than those from other renowned Zin regions like Dry Creek Valley. There are seven sub-appellations within Lodi and most of the grapes in Brazin are sourced from the Mokelumne River AVA, known for well draining, sandy soils. The vineyard is irrigated twice a year, using a flood technique. The intent of this technique is to give the vines enough water to survive, but to stress them. By stressing the vines, it produces smaller fruit with more intense flavors. And Brazin is brimming with intensity.
A little bit of nutmeg and a fragrant floral aroma make this a really interesting Zinfandel. It also has aromas of plum, raspberry and tomato leaf, giving Brazin outstanding complexity. The flavors are blackberry jam, dark chocolate and a good kick of spice. There’s no lack of concentration in those flavors. One thing that impressed me about this wine is the fact that this Zin is a whopping 15% abv, but it doesn’t have the heat found in many other high-alcohol wines. To me, that’s a result of the winemaker’s skill.
I was able to find this wine for $15.00, which to me is an outstanding value for a wine of this quality.
Wine: Brazin Old Vine Zin
Variety: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2007
Alcohol: 15%
Rating: 88
Price: $15.00
Find Brazin Old Vine Zin with Snooth
Tim,
I fully agree, this wine is a great value. I drank a bottle of the 2008 today. I tried it with and without an aerator, the extra air definitely brought out a deeper nose, didn’t make much difference on the flavor though.
I see that Brazin shares a tasting room with Delicato. Does anyone know if there is any common ownership? Is Brazin one of Delicato’s labels? Delicato’s ’03 and ’04 Syrah’s were out of this world. Haven’t had the fortune of tasting one since.
Peter T