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Today we’re reviewing two Zinfandels that you’re likely to see on the shelf at your local grocery store.  While I often encourage readers to shop at their local wine shops versus grocery stores I realize that you may not have a convenient wine shop and sometimes you’re just in a hurry.

In addition to being two grocery store wines another thing these have in common is that they are both cheap… under $7.  There’s something I like about these already.

Fetzer Valley Oaks Zinfandel 2004

The first wine is from Fetzer, a name you’re sure to see on most grocery store wine shelves.  At a high level, I would describe this wine as a muted Zinfandel.  It has the characteristics you would expect from a Zinfandel, but those characteristics are lacking intensity and are just kind of dull.

There is a bit of jamminess with cherry and raspberry aromas.  The mouth-feel is smooth from the tannins with a spicy kick on the finish.  There is a bit of earthiness, a good amount of fruit and peppery spice.  Again, it’s everything you would expect only with a very sterile / safe composition.  There are no specific faults but there’s also nothing to get excited about.  There is a general lack of intensity.

The score came out to an 80 (drinkable, but nothing to be excited about).  There’s not one area in which this wine was incredibly off balance, rather the 80 was a result of not scoring excessively well in any of the 16 criteria I use to rate wine.

Wine: Fetzer Valley Oaks
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2004
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 80
Price Paid: $6.99

Find Fetzer Valley Oaks Zinfandel on Snooth

Pepperwood Grove Old Vine Zinfandel 2005

The second wine is the Pepperwood Grove Zinfandel, which is part of the 3 Loose Screws family of wine brands from Don Sebastiani & Sons.

The 2005 Pepperwood Grove Old Vine Zinfandel is a great wine for the price.  It’s well balanced and quite enjoyable.  If you want to pay more you can easily find a better Zin, but this is a great deal.  The bouquet features a strop of leather with blackberry and cola aromas.  On the palate it’s nicely acidic and has lots of blackberry and spice.  Plus I picked up a little sour apple flavor that I don’t usually find in reds, but it was an interesting twist.  The medium-length finish is spicy and crisp.

The bad news is that it looks like they are going non-vintage after 2005 which is a move I strongly oppose.  Vintage is highly important in selecting wines and without one on the label, I can’t recommend a wine.  If you find the 2005, it’s a good deal.  If there is no year on the label, good luck.

Wine: Pepperwood Grove Old Vine Zinfandel
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 85
Price Paid: $6.49

Find Pepperwood Grove Old Vine Zinfandel on Snooth

Simply put, Picpoul is my favorite white varietal; specifically, Picpoul de Pinet from Coteaux du Languedoc in France.  Since discovering it I almost don’t want to try any other white wine for I have found the one that I love.  This is an absolutely delightful varietal.  It’s light, dry, minerally, acidic… it’s everything I want from a white wine.

I’ve been wanting to highlight Picpoul de Pinet and when DrDebs at Good Wine Under $20 announced the theme for Wine Blogging Wednesday #46 I knew this was the right time.  And the theme is White Rhone Varietals from Anywhere.

For those who stumble across this article and don’t know what Wine Blogging Wednesday is, it’s an event that occurs once every month when wine bloggers from around the world all write about a common theme.  It’s a lot of fun and an opportunity to discover some great wines that you might not otherwise try.  I hope to share just that with you today.

Picpoul is a varietal that originated in southern France and is often used as a component in blends versus bottled as a single varietal.  It is known for its high acidity which makes it an excellent wine to pair with shellfish — oysters are a popular choice with Picpoul.  It is also an excellent choice with rich, soft cheeses.

The Picpoul de Pinet terroir is the largest white wine producing region in Coteaux du Languedoc.  Rather than spending my time rehashing the details, I’ll direct you to the Picpoul de Pinet site to read all about the terroir.  They’ve done a great job.

In addition to being consistently a great white wine, another consistency I’ve noticed is that the producers all seem to use the same bottle design.  See the designs on the neck of the bottles pictured below.  So you can quickly identify this varietal on the shelf when you see the bottle.

It is sick how much I enjoy this wine.  It is the most crisp and refreshing white varietal I have ever tasted.  I tried Picpoul de Pinet from two different producers for this Wine Blogging Wednesday and they were both excellent.

Le Jade Picpoul de Pinet

At times Picpoul can be a bit too acidic, but this one is just right.  And it has surprising complexity for a $9 bottle of wine. 

The nose is a full bouquet of tropical delights.  There’s a bit of grapefruit, some pineapple, and lime.  Yes, those are all acidic fruits, but trust me… it’s not too acidic.  The palate on this has a gentle pineapple and lime flavor with really nice mineral undertones.  The finish is rather long and is very minerally.

I enjoyed this with some garlic butter drenched escargot and some pan bigio bread with soft ripened fromage triple-crème.  It was delightful, but I found myself wishing I had picked up the lobster I was eyeing in the market.

Wine: Le Jade
Varietal: Picpoul de Pinet
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 12.5%
Rating: 89
Price Paid: $8.99

Hugues Beaulieu

The nose on this one has a good bit of pear, pineapple, acidic lime, floral aromas and a rich mineral aroma that has a slightly petrol aspect to it.  The flavor is delicate, crisp and refreshing.  It has a good bit of acidic lime flavor, but by no means will it make you wince.  The mineral flavors come through like a wet rock.  The aftertaste is pear and mineral, and it lasts exceptionally long.  It earned a solid 90 rating.

Simply put, this is an extraordinary value at $9.99.  I enjoyed it with charcoal grilled garlic shrimp, flounder with spinach sauteed in olive oil with lemon & garlic, and grilled neo-Tuscan bread dipped in olive oil.  Is your mouth watering yet?

Wine: Hugues Beaulieu
Varietal: Picpoul de Pinet
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 12.5%
Rating: 90
Price Paid: $9.99

It is unlikely that you’ll find these wines in your local grocery store.  You’ll need to visit a wine shop, and even there they may only have one or two to pick from.

Learn more about Picpoul

• Picpoul de Pinet Official Site
• Appellation America on Picpoul

One year ago today I published my first post on CheapWineRatings.com and I wanted to take a couple minutes to reflect on the past year and revisit some favorites.

As I look back at my first reviews (only a year ago) I feel that the quality has improved significantly.  The tasting notes are better now, the photography is better and I now employ a more analytical approach to ratings than when I first started.  I hope it continues to improve and I’m saying the same thing a year from now about today.

I had a lot of fun over the past year and I especially enjoyed the Wine Blogging Wednesday events.  I’m looking forward to more fun and more wine over the next year.

Some of my favorite wines of the past year include (in no specific order):

• Cellar No. 8 Cabernet Sauvignon
• McManis Petite Sirah
• Casa Catelli Negroamaro
• Cardinal Zin Zinfandel
• Veramonte Chardonnay
• Kuentz-Bas Riesling

There is one other wine that stands out as a favorite of mine and it was from my first review, Yasa Garnacha 2003.  I enjoyed this wine so much that it is locked in my memory as “the best value wine of all time.”  And it was a wine that inspired and motivated me to create this website.  To celebrate my fond memories of that wine I decided to revisit the more current vintages of Yasa.

I picked up both the 2005 and 2006 vintages of Yasa Garnacha and what I found was disappointing.  It was a validation of how important vintage is when identifying great wines.  2003 was an extraordinary year for Spanish wine and it’s not surprising that the Yasa was much better that year.

They updated the label since 2003, raised the price a couple bucks and lowered the quality.  That’s not how it’s supposed to work!

Here’s what I found from the ‘05 and ‘06.

Yasa Garnacha 2005

Butterscotch, black pepper, cedar and cherry make up the nose.  The palate is quite acidic is shows mostly a sour cherry flavor.  There is also some walnut, plum and some spicy black pepper.  There is a slight metallic aftertaste.  This is not what I expect (or want) from a Grenache.

Wine: Yasa
Varietal: Grenache
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 78
Price Paid: $9.99

Yasa Garnacha 2006

The nose is fairly tight.  It opened up to show some blackberry, cedar, black pepper and a touch of bubblegum.  It has a slightly dirty/barnyard aroma too.  The palate brings loads of blackberry and plum.  It’s a little jammy.  There’s a very floral black pepper spice on the finish.  There are also some black tea tannins on the finish.  It’s a step up from the 2005, but not nearly as good as 2003.

Wine: Yasa
Varietal: Grenache
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 83
Price Paid: $9.99

Oh well… not every bottle of cheap wine will be a winner.  Here’s to another year of searching for the gems.  Cheers!

I was really looking forward to trying the Cellar No. 8 Zinfandel because of the fact that the Cellar No. 8 Cabernet Sauvignon was my top pick in my series on Cabs.  I was hoping to find another great value wine here, but unfortunately this tasting leaves me searching.

At first, the nose didn’t strike me as distinctly zinfandel.  It was was mostly smoky and subtle.  Given a chance to open up the zin characteristics started to come through — raspberry, blackberry, cedar and pepper.  The palate also didn’t strike me as a typical California Zinfandel.  This is much more earthy and subtle than I expected.  It is still quite fruity, but not quite what you would expect from a zin.  The tonality of the flavors is what I would characterize as lower mid-range.  Read the section in this post on the musicality of wine to understand what I mean by lower mid-range.  There is not a lot of complexity but some blackberry, raspberry and a good bit of chocolate on the palate.  There’s not much spice.  The mouth feel is awesome, very silky.

I gave this wine a score of 82.  While there are some enjoyable aspects to this wine but the numbers just didn’t add up to a great score.  It lost some points on varietal character, lack of intensity and lack of complexity.

Wine: Cellar No. 8
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 14.6%
Rating: 82
Price Paid: $9.99

I’ve been toying with the idea of trying out Twitter for a while and today I finally signed up.  I don’t know the lingo yet, so I don’t know if it makes me a Twit, a Twitterer or a Tweeter.

My plan was to sign up, dip my toe in the water, check it out, lay low, figure out how things work, etc. before I publicized my presence.  But Dr Debs saw that I had put her on follow and with one simple tweet she blew my cover.  The cat is out of the bag.  I tried to dip my toe in the water and Dr Debs pushed me in head first.  It’s probably for the best to just go at it full throttle anyway.  Hmmm, Dr Debs called me out on Twitter, maybe one day I’ll make it into her blogroll [wink, nudge]. 

Anyway… if you care to read my random, inane and irrelevant thoughts throughout the day you can follow me on Twitter.  Thank you to all of those who already put me on follow.  It’s a great welcome to Twitterville.

I was resistant to Twitter for a long time and poo pood it anytime someone suggested it, but after my first day I kind of like it.  I quickly felt more connected to other wine bloggers as I followed their comments throughout the day.  To be honest, I’m still trying to figure out how to fit in with the online wine community.

As I was flipping channels last night I stumbled across a program on MTV about people who are introverted in real life, but extroverted online.  I generally don’t find anything of interest on MTV anymore, but this program was interesting.  I was particularly intrigued by one woman who is a “rock star” in Second Life.  She writes music and performs it online but she is petrified by the idea of performing in front of people in a real life setting.  I think it’s great that the online world can create a “safe place” for those who are otherwise introverted to come out of their shells.

The show got me thinking a lot about online communities and my online persona.  I tend to be somewhat introverted in both real life and online (although I’m not a total hermit in either place).  I don’t generally socialize a lot in either real life or online.  And I’m not really one to create an alternate identity online.  When I first started this blog I did it rather anonymously but that didn’t really work for me.  I guess being honest and independent is just part of my persona.

I know that I should be more social in all aspects of life, real world and online.  This is one way to help facilitate that.  So, send me a Tweet sometime.   

As someone whose been an environmentalist for over 20 years (admittedly more intensely at some times than others) I’m always skeptical of a company’s environmental claims. I’m curious, but skeptical and I tend to be a rather harsh critic of environmental claims. Despite my skepticism, I am somewhat impressed with Parducci Cellars. They seem to have some street cred behind their environmental claims. But they do appear to dance around the organic issue… I’ll get to that in a minute.

Parducci Cellars claims to be the first carbon neutral winery in the US. I admit that I’m sick of hearing about “carbon footprints” so let’s see what’s behind this claim. Some of the measures they have taken include converting lighting from incandescent to fluorescent, using solar energy, using bio-diesel tractors and cars, participating in a tree planting program and purchasing carbon credits. I’m not a big fan of the idea of buying carbon credits, but the other stuff… all good.

They also use 100% post-consumer recycled paper and tree-free paper in all their packaging, brochures, stationary, etc. Plus they use chlorine-free cardboard for their case boxes and soy based inks. I’ll give them a couple street cred points for that.

But when it comes to organic, I get a little confused as I read their materials. The wine is not labeled as organic. This could be because they use sulfites in the production process. But when I read closely, the skeptic in me comes out. They claim that their “vineyards are certified for their sustainable practices” and they say that their “synthetic chemical free farming practices are certified by California Certified Organic Farmers.” Read that closely. It says that their farming practices are certified, it does not state that their vineyards are certified organic.  Also, they specify that it is their “synthetic chemical free farming practices” that are certified.  Do they employ other farming practices?  They make lots of references to organic farming, but nowhere do they make the claim that their vineyards are 100% organic.

It’s fine with me if they are not 100% certified organic, but if that’s the case I wish that they would clearly state it. Particularly if they are are going to include mentions of organic farming in their marketing materials. Just put it out there. Give us full disclosure and let us as consumers deal with it. That said, I am appreciative of their sustainable and bio-dynamic farming practices.

In addition to the favorable environmental practices of Parducci, there are two other things that impressed me about this producer: 1) A great tasting Zinfandel and 2) An outstanding price on that great tasting Zinfandel.

Parducci Mendocino Valley Zinfandel

Visually, this wine is bright red but less opaque than you might expect. Don’t let the thin appearance fool you though, as it has good intensity and is exceptionally enjoyable for the price. It’s not overly jammy like a lot of other Zins in this price range. The nose is rather dirty, kind of a dusty cedar chest aroma with some subtle dried cherry. The palate has crisp acidity with cherry and blackberry flavors. The tannins are soft and there is a hint of black pepper but the spice is much less intense than many other Zins. The finish is quite long and brings a subtle vanilla characteristic.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this one and I thought the $9.99 price was an outstanding value. This wine earned a solid 88 rating.

Wine: Parducci Mendocino Valley
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 88
Price Paid: $9.99

How can we do a series on Zinfandel without tasting 7 Deadly Zins?  Simply put, we can’t.

It’s a bad pun that inspired the naming of this wine.  But hey… it’s fun and it’s a name you will remember.  But it’s not just another bottle with a quirky name trying to entice shoppers with silly marketing, there’s a reason behind the seven in the name.  The grapes that go into this wine come from seven different growers in the Lodi region.  I don’t know if they picked the name and then decided to source from seven growers or vice versa, but I do know one thing… this wine is good!

You may have heard people refer to a style of Zinfandel as “Lodi Zinfandel” and this is a great example of such a style.  It’s a Zinfandel that was made to go with barbecue.  Big, bold and fruity with lots of spice.  This is what many people love about California Zins (and what some people hate).

I Confess, I Like this Wine

OK, so now I’m getting in on the bad jokes.  But it’s no joke that this is a good zin.  It has a spicy nose with a bit of raspberry, tomato, pepper and cola.  It’s very clearly a Lodi Zinfandel right from the first whiff.  Raisins, jammy blackberry, walnut and black pepper make for a big, bold palate with plenty of complexity.  It has good concentration too, and a fairly long finish with a hot spiciness.

It’s not bad for the $15 price.  I gave it an 87.

Wine: 7 Deadly Zins
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 15%
Rating: 87
Price Paid: $14.99

BIG, BOLD ZIN!  That’s how Rancho Zabaco characterizes their wines.  And we checked out two of the Zinfandels they produce.  There’s a good chance you’ll see at least one of these Zins on the Zinfandel shelf at your local wine shop as Rancho Zabaco doesn’t do much other than Zinfandel.

They have a couple other varietals, but Zinfandel is what Rancho Zabaco is known for and it’s their Zinfandel that we shall drink!  These are big and bold.  They good examples of what you would expect from a California Zinfandel.

Dancing Bull

This is a very quaffable wine, although not as complex as I would like in a zin. The nose is pure cherry cola.  Surprisingly, I kind of liked that about it.  The palate is just shy of being a fruit bomb.  It has very jammy blackberry and cherry flavors.  The tannins are soft—it could stand to be a touch more tannic.  There is a hint of black pepper in the finish, given it a bit of spice but I wouldn’t characterize this as a spicy Zinfandel.  Overall this is an enjoyable bottle of wine for the price.

Wine: Rancho Zabaco Dancing Bull
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 13.9%
Rating: 84
Price Paid: $8.99

Sonoma Heritage Vines Zinfandel

As they say, this is BIG.  With a whopping 15% alcohol level, this one is rather intense.

There is an enjoyable smokey nose on this one with cherry, blackberry, walnut and spice.  The palate is quite tannic and fruity.  It’s somewhat jammy with blackberry and cherry flavors.  It’s much more fruity than spicy, but it’s not too sweet.  The finish is full of walnut with berries and a hint of chocolate.  It’s a decent zin, but it’s nothing extraordinary.

It has a bit more complexity than the Dancing Bull, but it’s not significantly better.  Given the choice, I’d prefer to save a few bucks and go with the Dancing Bull.

Wine: Rancho Zabaco Sonoma Heritage Vines
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 15%
Rating: 86
Price Paid: $11.99

Cardinal Zin is the epitome of a Zin with a fun name and a fun label.  In fact it’s so much fun that in 2001 it was banned in Ohio! 

OK, it wasn’t banned for being too much fun specifically.  It was banned because Ohio’s state code on wine labeling forbids “advertisement or representation portraying pictures of… children [or] religious subjects.”

 The label on this wine was designed by artist Ralph Steadman and it depicts a Cardinal.

Really??? Is this a reason to ban a wine?  That is crazy!  Clearly, 2001 was a slow year for the Ohio State Liquor Regulator.  Although it was banned back in 2001, I have seen it on shelves in Ohio recently.  Either the state regulators came to their senses or there are some rogue distributors ignoring this ban.  Shhhhhh.

Personally, the fact that it was banned makes me want to buy wine.  I am a staunch opponent of censorship and will often buy things just because they were banned.  And if I knew who was responsible for the ban I would litter his or her yard with my empty bottles.  I don’t know what good that would do, but for some reason the thought of it makes me feel good.

Anyway, I’m rambling with my fantasies of minor vandalism.  Is that even vandalism?  I think I’m actually fantasizing about littering.  Enough of this… on to the tasting.

In addition to having a fun and controversial label, this wine is quite good.

The Musicality of Cardinal Zin 

This is a nice zinfandel with bright, high-pitched aromas.  I tend to organize scents in my mind similar to different sounds. Some scents are high-pitched and some are thumping bass notes.  A full cabernet sauvignon often has a lot of bass, but this zinfandel is full of high notes and upper mid-range. 

Another analogy to put this into context is public restrooms.  I know it’s a gross analogy, but stay with me and this will all make sense.  We’ve all been in public restrooms where they have an air freshener, but it doesn’t seem to cover up the funk.  That’s because the scents from the air freshener are at the wrong frequency.  The funk in the restroom is typically a deep bass but the air freshener has a high-pitched tonality.  It’s like trying to drown out a woofer with a tweeter… it just doesn’t work.

So the aromas in this wine are a mostly high-pitched and mid-range.  Not a lot of bass.  This gives it a fresh and spicy character which is music to my tongue.  There are aromas of raspberry, strawberry, briar and violet… perhaps a touch of tarragon.  The aromas are intense but none of them are dominant, it’s very well balanced.  The smell makes me want to eat pasta with loads of garlic and basil.  I love pesto. 

The palate is full of fruit and spice.  More of the raspberry & strawberry that was in the nose.  Plus a bit of wet rock, leather and pepper.  The finish is exceptionally long with soft tannins. This is an outstanding wine for $15.99 and it earned a solid 90 rating.  I highly recommend it.

Wine: Cardinal Zin
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 90
Price Paid: $15.99

Twist the top off this and celebrate a cork-free bargain.  Twisted Wines are a brand of wine that jumps out at you on the wine shelves.  The marketing guy in me loves this brand.  They have good packaging with a fun attitude, eye-popping shelf talkers and a well-designed website.  And the brand is not all marketing fluff, they are producing some decent wines at great prices too.

While I sound really excited about Twisted Zin, that’s really driven a lot by the price.  This is a great wine for only $6.99.  But it’s not going to be my top Zinfandel pick for under $20.

The nose on the Twisted Zin is cherry cola, raspberry and herbs.  It’s not really elegant, but it’s fun and enjoyable.  The palate is full of jammy red fruit and a touch of black pepper.  It’s not as spicy as a lot of other zinfandels and I would have liked a bit more kick, but it’s still quite enjoyable.  I was also surprised by the high alcohol level from a zin at this price (14.5%).

I gave this wine an 85.  Wine Enthusiast gave it an 84 back in November 2007 and labeled it a “Best Buy.”  I’d have to say that I agree.

Wine: Twisted Zin
Varietal: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 14.5%
Rating: 85
Price Paid: $6.99