Great Zinfandel is made in the vineyard. The quality of a bottle of Zinfandel is almost always correlated with the age of the vineyard from which it comes. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the state of California where most of the best Zinfandels come from vineyards that literally date back to the turn of the 20th century. The…
In years past it seemed like mailers for Spring wine delivery arrived in an orderly fashion over the first three months of the year. This year, however, virtually every winery I follow decided to release their wines in the month of January. Below are some quick thoughts on the mailers that have arrived so far: Quilceda Creek – Prices are…
The January Installment of Pick My Next Bottle focuses on some old bottles from several of my very favorite Chateaux. I mentioned in the first installment, the purpose of this series is to provide insight into specific wines or producers you may currently have in your cellar. The winning bottle will be opened this Saturday and a Bottle Note will…
Mailers from Betz and Quilceda Creek have already arrived. Save the date emails from Sojourn and Outpost are in my inbox. I’ve seen confirmations from the winery that Saxum and Rivers-Marie are only a week or two out. The biannual battle of trying to juggle mortgage payments, school tuition and wine purchases has begun. For better or worse, mailing list season…
Year end always seems like a good time to take stock of the wine cellar and think about how you might want to change your approach in the up coming year. I’ve been at this wine hobby this for a long time so there is no need for a radical overhaul. I do though plan to make some minor changes…
As I was thinking about the focus of Zinfandel Chronicles in 2014, I took a moment to look at what posts in 2013 generated the most traffic (excluding most Bottle Notes and Pick My Next Bottle polls). Since many of you just recently started reading my blog (thank you!), I thought I’d put together a list of the most popular…
Earlier this week on Tuesday the 3rd of December the much anticipated Fall releases for CIRQ and Schrader arrived in my inbox. CIRQ is a single vineyard Russian River Valley Pinot Noir from Michael Browne. Browne is of course the winemaker and co owner of Kosta Browne. The vineyard, known as Treehouse, is farmed by Charlie Chenoweth. Word of this…
In the spirit of the upcoming holidays I am making a list of wines I’d like to see made. In some cases it is a winemaker that I would like to see make a wine from a new varietal and in other cases it is an existing varietal from a different vineyard source. Lets get this list started with a…
When you think Williams Selyem you think Pinot Noir. With Spottswoode you think Cabernet Sauvignon. Both of these wineries make other wines that I count among my favorites. The Zinfandel and Chardonnay programs at Williams Selyem are second to none. However, when you receive an offer letter with a dozen different Pinots the one off Chardonnay and Zinfandel can easily…
If you’re new to the hobby of wine collecting, at some point you’ve probably found yourself signing up for every prominent mailing list available to you. That may be fine for a while, but how do you proceed when the offers start flooding your inbox? I’ve been buying off mailings list for almost 20 years now (I previously blogged about this…