Rosenblum Vintner's Cuvée Zinfandel XXXV

The last one of these that I had was XXXIV, and it was just not good. The XXXIII was beautiful, a steal for the price. This is better than its predecessor, however it still can't compete with XXXIII.

It has a lot of character, big fruit, some spice, some tannins, but by no means is it a "cellar for years" type of wine. Get a few bottles to keep handy. If you want to cellar it, keep it for a couple of years at the most. I had a couple of bottles of Rosenblum go bad, warning me that five years was apparently too long.

That caused me to consider that some wines should be enjoyed sooner rather than later. I often think long and hard about whether or not I should hold onto THAT bottle--you know the one, we all have at least one--and what am I really gaining by doing so?

Some of their wines may really work for your palate, however don't be disappointed if these are a turnoff. In my limited experience, I have found Rosenblum to be inconsistent. And I'm not sure if that is the store's fault for not storing them properly, or if the grapes are so wild they are growing and changing unpredictably in the bottle. I'm happy to conduct more research.


Bottom line: Drink it if you must. There is arguably better value for your dollar out there.

Bodegas "Viva Tu" Tempranillo 2010 Paso Robles

Bodegas is just really good wine, plain and simple. Their Viva Tu blend is complex and beautiful from the start. Once it opens up, it is even better. Plus they have fun artwork on their labels. A small tasting room in Paso is where we discovered their gem-like offerings. They have many others tasty wines that I recommend, some of whom I have posted about already, others I will post about in the future!

Bottom line: Drink it! If you are disappointed, it's your own fault.

Witch Creek Winery Aglianico 2011

This unusual wine was originally intended to be my Halloween post, but it will have to be Friday the 13th instead. We discovered the tasting room of Witch Creek in the town of Julian, just outside of San Diego. It was raining and a generally lovely day, and one of the best things to do, should one find oneself in just such a situation, is to secure comfort in the tasting of wines.

All the wines here are a bit unusual. Varietals that were familiar, like Aglianico, but I recall also a Montepulciano and several others I no longer remember (and a search for the tasting sheet I kept from there yielded no results--worst report ever?). We picked up a couple of blends and a bottle of their port which was light a delicious.

Only 100 cases were made of this particular vintage. So its dark fruit, but also savory notes, like sage and salt, were just...bewitching. I know, but stick with me here. The grapes were sourced from fields in Mexico and likely being so much closer to the equator, their chemical makeup was just different. All their wines were enticing and strange and exotic and alluring. They were almost like parallel universe wines. So close to a thing I know intimately and yet, just different enough to make me question my approach to tasting.

Bottom line: It cast a spell on me.