Sunday, December 18, 2011

Cline 2005 Gnarly Head Old Vines Zinfandel (USA)

In a post I did about Friday's wine (Bogle Phantom), I made mention that all Zin is good unless it is spoiled.  In a related matter, I got an email the other day from a winery owner who was not happy with one of my posts in which I blamed pastic cork for the demise of his wine.  Which bring us back to the Gnarly Head I held in my hands, struggled to open, and poured into my this past Sunday.  At first the wine just seemed a little pruny - and with the plumminess of Zinfandel (usually) you can some how make the leap that an older Zin will become pruny (no?).  But 20 minutes into the glass and this wine was shot, long-gone-to-the-Yukon, an absolute disaster ... and I blame, you guessed it, the cork, which was indeed plastic, stylized, but plastic.  I suspect you have heard me talk about the bane of my existence being these plastic corks which act like sieves for air.  They spoil wine that is usually wonderful in no time flat.  And if you are unlucky enough to have stored away a plastic capped wine for any length of time you have a 80/20 chance that wine is not worth cleaning your toilet ... such was the case with this wine.  In both smell and taste it was rancid and not worth drinking.  My wife was actually shocked that I was pouring a glass of wine down the sink, and even more shocked that is was a Zin, saying, "I thought you said there were redeeming qualities in all wine" ... not one like this sweetheart, not one like this.

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