Recent Ridge zinfandels tasted

[Max Hauser]

Zins or zin blends I've tasted recently at the winery (on Monte Bello Ridge)
include 03 York Creek, 04 York Creek, 04 Geyserville, 05 Three Valleys ($20,
Ridge's "volume" zin, distributed internationally),and 05 Ponzo. Haven't
tried 05s of either Geyserville or York Creek. (Note that Ridge has made
single-site zinfandels from those two flagship vineyards since 1966 and 1967
respectively. About 10 vintages later I started tasting and occasionally
buying them. In decent vintages these zins can age and improve for twenty
years, I've seen it.)

All were respectable wines but stylistically diverse. I found the 03 York
Creek ($30 at winery) strongly spicy and jammy on the nose with a touch
coffee. Taste was hard, tannic, a jumble of fruit acids and flavors, a
strong ageworthy structure. A hard, serious zin, for serious people. Or
patient ones. (14.4% alc.) Winery's notes added that it was low-yielding
with small berries from the dry-farmed vineyards. 04 York Creek:
distinctive chocolate-blueberry smells. Smelled a bit "hot" (alcoholic);
it's 14.8%. Later a particular impression of Hershey chocolate bar on the
nose (a strong olfactory reference point many people in North America grow
up experiencing). Taste, hot but with beautiful, captivating balance.
Retail staffer remarked that the winery had done a late-picked style with
the York Creek zin for a few years (WHAT??) then added she was glad
personally that it had returned to a dry style, without residual sugar. I
paused to give thanks, then bought some at $28.

04 Geyserville ($33) had a familiar aroma of bright raspberries.
Concentrated on palate with extreme raspberryish fruit. 05 Three Valleys
had a bright, (I wrote) "confused" style on nose, with coffee. Rich meaty
smells. Appealing on the palate, less of an edge than the rest of these,
almost integrated. 05 Ponzo ($26) had rich, dark-berry aromas, coffee,
blackberries. Almost meaty. Anise, herbal. Taste: strong acid and fruit.
Bright, rich. This vineyard in the Russian River Valley is new to me among
Ridge's zins, this one was impressive.

-- Max

[Tire Bouchon]

Nickel & Nickel bottled an '05 zin from Ponzo Vineyard, also. It's
quite tasty right now.

Mark