Hayman & Hill is focused on single varietal, appellation designated, Californian wines produced by David Hayman and Dennis Hill.

2003 Dry Creek Valley Reserve Selection Zinfandel

This is a very typical California Zinfandel.  It shows cedar, blackberry, cherry and spice on the nose, which has a fairly good intensity.  The palate is fairly jammy with blackberry and plum fruit.  There is some spice… it’s mild, but noticeable.  There is also some coffee flavor late in the finish, after the fruit has faded from the palate.

It’s a decent and enjoyable wine for $12.99, but it’s not a memorable experience. 

Wine: Hayman & Hill Dry Creek Valley Reserve Selection
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2003
Alcohol: 14.3%
Rating: 84
Price Paid: $12.99

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Old Zin Vines is produced by Oak Ridge Winery, the oldest operating winery in Lodi, founded in 1934.  The winery was originally operated as a cooperative of local growers.  Then in 2001 the winery was purchased and renovated by Rudy Maggio and his partners, Don and Rocky Reynolds.

One of the particularly interesting things about this winery is the tasting room, which resides inside a 50,000 gallon redwood tank.  If you’ve ever wanted to drink from inside a barrel, this is your chance.

Old Zin Vines 2005

I love the design of this bottle.  It’s very bold, just like the wine inside it. It pours to reveal a luscious purplish red color.  Cedar, cherry, blackberry jam, cola and herbs waft from the nose.  The palate is big… big blackberry jam, cherry, plum and spice—a fun and intense spice.  There is a bit of coffee and chocolate, lending a soft, smooth characteristic to the experience.  The finish is long and spicy.

It’s a good zinfandel, but it’s in the upper end of our price range and we’ve found other Zins that are just as good for a bit less.

Wine: Oak Ridge Winery - Old Zin Vines
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 13.95%
Rating: 87
Price Paid: $15.99

The Old Vine Zinfandel was another good experience from Bogle.  While I’ve had some better Zinfandels at higher price points the quality of this wine is very good for the price—just $10! 

The nose had a strong cedar aroma, like opening a cedar chest.  There was also a bit of blackberry and plum on the nose. The mouth feel is very full and satisfying.  The palate has big blackberry and plum flavors.  It’s a bit jammy, but not too much so.  A little walnut is also in there and there’s some mid-palate chocolate.  A super spicy finish that makes this quite enjoyable. 

Wine: Bogle Old Vines Zinfandel
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 14.5%
Rating: 87
Price Paid: $9.97

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I was lucky enough to find a bottle of the 2001 Belvedere Healdsburg Ranches Zinfandel still sitting on the shelf at a local wine shop and I scooped it up.  I’d recommend you too scoop this up if you run across it.  It’s a great Sonoma County Zinfandel for $15.

Cedar, blackberry, black cherry and mushroom make up the nose.  The palate is slightly jammy with blackberry, black cherry and plum.  There is also some mid-palate chocolate and lots of black pepper.  The tannins are silky smooth.

Wine: Belvedere Healdsburg Ranches
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2001
Alcohol: 14.4%
Rating: 88
Price Paid: $14.98

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Every Wine Blogging Wednesday comes with a host who is responsible for providing the round-up of all the contributions.  This month’s host is Grape Juice, a Canadian wine blog.

With a theme that is brought to you by the letter “S” things are pretty wide open to do whatever I want.  Many wine bloggers will take the strategy of trying to find a wine that includes as many “S”es as possible. They’ll find a wine like Syrah or Sangiovese, produced in Sonoma, Spain, or South Africa, by a producer with an “S” name.  I too did a bit of that, but I wanted to find a couple “S”es that others may not focus on.  The first one is sneek peek.

Yep, this Wine Blogging Wednesday I am giving you a sneek peek at the next series (there’s another “s”) that will be featured on Cheap Wine Ratings. If you’re a regular reader you know that we’ve been doing a series on California Zinfandel for what seems like forever.  Well, that is almost complete and the final summary is fast approaching. Once that is done we’ll be featuring Côtes du Rhône wines and today we’re revealing the first wine in that series.

Saint-Esprit Côtes du Rhône from Delas

You’ll notice that the name of this wine starts with our theme-letter. The primary grape in this wine is also an “s”, Syrah.  That may be all the “S”es you’ll find in this wine, but it’s not all the grapes.  The blend is made of 70% Syrah, 20% Grenache, 5% Mourvedre, and 5% Carignan.  This is a somewhat different blend than many Côtes du Rhône wines in which Grenache is the primary grape.  The dominance of Syrah indicates that this is a Northern wine.

The nose has leather, nutmeg, blackberry and a hint of licorice.  But it is mostly leather.  It’s like sticking your nose into a brand new leather wallet.  I love that smell.  The palate is quite chocolaty and also shows blackberry, plum and a little pepper.  The tannins are fairly heavy, but not painfully so.  It is well balanced with good fruit and crisp acidity.

It scored an 86 and is an enjoyable wine at a decent price of $12.99.

Wine: Delas Saint-Esprit
Varietal: Côtes du Rhône
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 86
Price Paid: $12.99

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Similar to many of the producers we’ve reviewed in this Zinfandel series, Rosenblum Cellars produces several different labels of Zinfandel.  Some of those labels are produced like micro-wines, isolating grapes from individual lots to feature the unique characteristics from the particular vines and climate in each vineyard.  The wine we tasted for this review is the Rosenblum Vintner’s Cuvée, in which grapes are selected from various different vineyards to layer the qualities and characteristics of each.  Further, the wine is aged in both French and American oak casks to lend even more complexity.

One thing you may notice about Rosenblum Vintner’s Cuvée is that you won’t find a typical vintage marking on the label.  Rather than list the vintage as a calendar year, Rosenblum labels the vintage as a bottling.  The vintage we tasted is XXX (the 30th bottling of the Cuvée Zinfandel).

Another thing that I found different, and I really liked, was a removable “memory tab.”  On the back label there is a tab that you can remove from the bottle to help you remember the wine’s name the next time you go to the shop.  This is simply a brilliant idea as I can’t count the number of times I’ve had a great wine in a restaurant and find myself wishing I had written down the name the next day.  Of course this is less of a problem now than it used to be since the advent of camera phones.  Now I just snap a picture of the bottle any time I find a new wine that I want to note.  At times this has me propping up the bottle next to a candle in a dark restaurant, trying to get enough light (very obnoxious).

Rosenblum Vintner’s Cuvée XXX

Rosenblum Vintner’s Cuvée is the go-to cheap Zinfandel for many budget wine aficionados.  It’s a fairly typical inexpensive California Zin and it’s definitely good, but I’m not blown away by it.  It is very spicy and very fruit forward, so if that’s your preference this may be a good pick for you.

On the nose it is mostly cedar, black pepper and plum.  There is also a subtle cherry cola aroma.  The palate is predominantly big blackberry flavor and raisin.  There is also some plum and cherry with less intensity than the blackberry.  The finish brings a touch of raspberry and a snappy spice giving this wine a nice complexity. The tannins are fine grained.  Overall it’s a good value Zin.

Wine: Rosenblum Cellars Vintner’s Cuvée XXX
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: XXX
Alcohol: 14.6%
Rating: 86
Price Paid: $11.99

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Rabbit Ridge produces a couple different Zinfandels bit we only tried the most affordable one, the Central Coast Barrel Cuvee Zinfandel. Whew, that’s a mouthful!

This is a fairly typical jammy, cheap zinfandel. The nose has a powerful cedar aroma, plus some blackberry jam, tar, a hint of black pepper and some alcohol heat. The alcohol nature on the nose is not surprising with the alcohol level clocking in at 15%.

The palate is abundantly jammy. Seriously, if this were a little thicker I’d spread it on some toast. It’s like a really good boysenberry jam. Sometimes an overly jammy wine really turns me off, but the jam was good enough with this one (not overly sweet) that I could enjoy it. There’s also some pepper on the palate, but not much else. The tannins are decent, although it could be a bit more tannic. The acid level is good and the finish is medium long and slightly peppery.

I gave it an 85 and it could have done better with a little more complexity. But at $10.99 it’s a decent bottle of wine.

Wine: Rabbit Ridge Central Coast Barrel Cuvee Zinfandel
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 15%
Rating: 85
Price Paid: $10.99

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Another thing that makes it lonely when you start a new blog is the fairly cold reception you typically get from other bloggers. Blog communities are generally distrustful of newbies — at least that’s my perception. I’d like to change that in the wine blogging community to make it more inclusive and welcoming toward new bloggers. And to do so, I plan to highlight new wine blogs that I find which I think hold promise. I can’t write about every new blog, as it seems like there’s a new one every day, but I will pick out those that really grab my attention and focus particularly on blogs that feature value wines.

The first blog I want to spotlight is Everyday Wine by Gretchen Roberts.  This blog is only just over one month old, but it is already on my regular reading list.  One thing I like about this wine blog is the fact that it’s focused on affordable, everyday wines.  Obviously, that is the sweet spot to which I relate.

Another thing about Everyday Wine that stands out is the great writing.  Gretchen is an experienced writer who has written for magazines like Wine Enthusiast, Cooking Light, Better Homes & Gardens and several others and her experience shows.  (Note: I realize that if I were writing in a serious journalistic style I would have written “Roberts is and experienced writer…” but I prefer to be more conversational with my writing.  If you don’t like that, too bad.)

Everyday Wine features some reviews, but also includes a number of posts that are more topical and interesting than simple reviews.  (I know I need to do more of this too, but reviews are my priority.)  She writes about What to do with bad wine, How to save a sparkling wine and How to open champagne.  Gretchen also shares my perspective on shopping at local wine shops and making friends with the staff.  She discusses this in her Twin Palates post.

Among her affordable wine recommendations there are a few that I haven’t had, but I’ll need to try.  And there are others that I have had and wholeheartedly agree with, such as Cousino Macul Cabernet Sauvignon, Brancott Sauvignon Blanc, and Rosenblum Cellars Zinfandel.  (Note: While I agree that Rosenblum is a good Zinfandel, I think you can do better and my summary on Zinfandels will be posted within the next few weeks where you can see my top picks.)

Be sure to check out Everyday Wine and add it to your everyday reading list.  Cheers!

It’s not that I have anything personally against Trader Joe’s, but I have yet to find a bargain in their wine department to get excited about.  I’ve reviewed a few TJ wines in the past and none of them were exceptional. 

When most people think of cheap wine at Trader Joe’s they are thinking of Charles Shaw, the famous 2 Buck Chuck.  But there are numerous other Trader Joe’s exclusive wines besides Charles Shaw.  They also carry some good wines that aren’t TJ-exclusives, but their prices are the same or more than I find at other shops.

All of the TJ comments I hear leave me torn.  With all of the raving I hear about TJ’s I think there must be something to it.  If so many people rave about their wines, they must be good… right?  Have I just been trying the wrong ones?  After all, I haven’t tried every wine they sell.  And so, I keep going back from time to time to give them another chance.  It seems like every time I do, I find myself wishing that I hadn’t.  This is one of those times.

This time I tried the 2006 Old Moon Zinfandel from the Trader Moon Wine Company.  It sells for $7.99 — a few bucks more than Chuck.

My assessment is that this is a fairly predictible low-priced zinfandel.  Black cherry and oak on the nose with a little bit of spice heat.  The intensity is moderate.  The palate has more black cherry and some plum.  The fruit is rather artificial tasting.  There’s a touch of vanilla on the finish.  It’s a drinkable wine, but it’s not a great wine.

In all honesty, my description probably made it sound more interesting than it really is.

Wine: Old Moon Old Vine Zinfandel
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 79
Price Paid: $7.99

Earlier this year Cline Cellars was recognized for sustainable business practices. They were given the Sustainable 6 Award for generating 100% of the winery’s electricity with solar power and for following organic and sustainable farming practices.

Cline Cellars is best known for creating Rhône-style wines and Zinfandel.  They produce several different labels of Zinfandel ranging in price from $9 to $34.  We checked out the two Zinfandels offered by Cline for under $20.

Cline 2006 Zinfandel (red label)

“Oh my, this is too jammy,” was the thought that kept echoing through my head as I tasted this wine.

Blackberry jam, fruitcake, vanilla and a wisp of leather make up the nose.  And as I said, the palate is REALLY jammy.  This would be good if it were slightly thicker so that I could spread it on some toast.  It seriously tastes like blackberry jam.  Good blackberry jam, but it’s too much in a glass of wine.

There’s a bit of plum and cherry on the palate too.  There’s not enough earth or spice to give it much character.  It’s very syrupy—in fact, the legs in the glass are thick and run like honey.  There are mild tannins and tart fruit on the finish.

This wine has characteristics that resemble a Zinfandel, but it’s not a great Zin and I can’t recommend it.  In fact, it was too sweet for me to finish it.

Wine: Cline 2006 Zinfandel
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 78
Price Paid: $8.99

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Cline 2006 Ancient Vines Zinfandel

This is a much better wine than the red label.  It has a hot leather characteristic to it.  The nose is mostly cedar and black pepper.  But there is also leather and cherry.  While there is some cherry aroma, the fruit on the nose is fairly subtle.

On the contrary, the palate is full of fruit (but it’s not overly jammy like the entry-level Cline Zin).  Cherry, blackberry and plum are all in there with a nice peppery high note.  There is some vanilla, blackberry and cedar on the finish.

Overall, I enjoyed this one.

Wine: Cline 2006 Ancient Vines Zinfandel
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 14.5%
Rating: 85
Price Paid: $14.99

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