2003 Kunde Shaw Vineyard "Century Vines" Zinfandel

This wine was one of the ones we bought when Jeff Kunde showed us around the Kunde property in Sonoma. We bought it mostly because we Kunde's regular Sonoma Valley Zinfandel is outstanding, and I figured that this one, being from the oldest vines on the property would be out of this world. Jeff did not recommend it to us - it turns out that he's a white wine drinker, so always hesitates to recommend and reds.

The presentation is good. It comes in a Zin bottle. All the required label info is there, along with a short historical blurb. The tasting notes give great info on the harvest and vineyard.

It has a foil capsule, and the real cork was clean - and smelled slightly vinegarish.

It had good clarity and a nice colour, with a fruity smell. The first taste was tangy and acidic.

The swirl left instant legs the length of the glass. Nice, long legs. It was still tangy, and now somewhat watery in taste.

3 trips through the Vinturi gave it some dirt on the nose - but it still tasted tangy.

I decanted the bottle. After 15 minutes, it was only slightly earthier and still tangy. 15 minutes is nothing, so I let it wait another hour. Still tangy. SGK swears it brought her allergies up.

At this point, I'm disappointed - this wine had so much promise. I funnel it back into the bottle to see if it will improve later.

<Sunday Evening>
SGK: It's much better. Still Puckery. Better than the Lemony taste from Thursday.
MRA: More fruit and fuller. By the second glass, I felt it was good.

The Verdict:

Given the length of time it needed to breathe, I surely opened this wine too early.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel
Appellation/Terrior:	Shaw Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, California
Vintage:	2003
Vintner:	Kunde
Alcohol:	14.5% by Volume
Price:	$45.00

2002 Kunde Estate Zin

This is the second of three bottles that we opened up for the Venison BBQ on Wednesday. It is a wine that I picked up at Safeway earlier this year. What attracted me to it was again the 2002 year - wines at Safeway don't usually get that old, and 2002 was a bitchin' year for zin.

This is an estate wine, which legally only means that the vintner owns the vineyard and fermented and aged the wine on the premises. Since the perceived value of estate (amongst those that do not know what it means) is high, plonk makers over use it. On the flip side, at a family run vineyard (as the photo of the Kunde family on the label attests to) this usually means wine from their house, so they are more careful with it (which was the original point of the estate designation on American labels).

The presentation was good. It came with a real cork in a Rhône coloured Bordeaux bottle, with no data on the label. The reason this rates better than an OK is the tasting notes are fantastically detailed.

The wine opened to a big fruity jammy nose full of raspberries. Mmm mmm. The first sip gave a fruit taste with a hint of charcoal. Subsequent sips were predominantly blackberries. There were legs all over the place.
Doug called it big but not monster and claimed a smokey finish.

The Verdict:

Oh Yea. Loved it. Bought the last 14 bottles at Safeway. Liked it enough that I would like to visit Kunde and taste some of their block designated wines.

Style:	Zinfandel
Varietals:	Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Grenache, Mourvèdre
Appellation/Terrior:	Sonoma, California
Vintage:	2002
Vintner:	Kunde
Alcohol:	14.1% by Volume
Price:	$17.39