Saturday, September 24, 2011

Cline 2005 Ancient Vines Zinfandel (California)

Even sittin' at home on a Friday evening I found myself in a California State of Mind, so I opened up an old bottle of this favourite from Cline.  They say the vines they use are between 80-100 years old, that's pretty ancient indeed.  Now at first I was not sure about this wine, things did not smell good and the taste was suspect.  The nose was plummy to a degree but also had quite a bit of pruney and foresty floor nuances.  The taste also rode the line with vanilla, oak, creme de cacao but with a long slightly pruned-oaked finish.  But with more time in the glass and some more aeration to the wine it began to sprout.  In the end I got chocolate with dried plum, but not yet prune notes and some spice started to show up to give the wine a nice kick.  Yup, a decanter and an hour would have helped this wine, but I could not wait to get to the good stuff - patience is a virtue and sometimes I have none of it.


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