Cosentino, Cigar Old Vine Zinfandel

Zinfandel is wine with an attitude. It’s a wine that evokes a passionate fan base for those who love it for being bold and brash. And it’s a wine that has its detractors too, also due to it being a bold and brash style of wine.

Cigar Zin, from Cosentino Winery, is one of those bold zinfandels. It’s made from 100% zinfandel from Lodi, California — one of the most renowned zinfandel regions in California. The aromas are bold, the flavors are big and with a whopping 15.5% ABV it packs a punch.

Despite the name, there was nothing about this wine that made me think “cigar.”

The nose of this wine is all about the spices, revealing aromas such as black pepper (and lots of it), cedar, new leather and coffee. That’s not to say the nose is void of fruit, there certainly are some blackberry and cherry aromas too. The palate delivers tangy blackberry, cherry, chocolate and spices with a touch of residual sugar sweetness. It does have a touch of a wet board flavor on the mid-palate, which just seems like the oak flavors didn’t fully marry with the rest of the flavor profile. The mouth feel is nice. The acidity is good. It finishes with lingering cherry and spice flavors.

Wine: Cigar Zin
Variety: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2015
Alcohol: 15.5%
Rating: 85
Price: $20.00
Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.