Another outstanding wine is 1995 Zinfandel Zeni Vineyard. Tasters would never guess it boasts 15.2% alcohol. It exhibits a saturated plum color, and an exotic, spicy, sweet, jammy, black-cherry, strawberry and currant-scented nose with a subtle suggestion of toasty new oak. This wine possesses terrific fruit and richness, more structure and tannin than the Eaglepoint Vineyard, and plenty of spice, body, and length. Drink this well-defined, very pure, textbook Zinfandel over the next 5-7 years.

Wines of the Week: Under $20, 90 Points One is drawn in by aromas of blackberries, cherries, and raspberries, accented by elements of clove and cocoa. Flavors of cherry, blackberry, and plum emerge on the palate, followed up by suggestions of toasty clove, earth, and dark chocolate. Offering polished tannins and good fruit character, it’s a wine to pair with chicken fijtas.

Terrific wine! Juicy purple plums and brambleberries. Lovely juiciness and supple layers. Zinfandel food pairings: pork tenderloin en croute served with Honeycrisp apple sauce.

Deep, dense and lush with blackberry and ripe berries; rich, smooth and balanced.

Although this substantial, generously oaked Zinfandel is inclined to high ripeness, it is rife with deep and defined blackberry fruit throughout and stays away from the dried-grape desiccation that its 15.5% alcohol might predict. It is admittedly a touch hot in the latter going, but it is rich and juicy from entry to finish and never crosses the line of being too much of a good thing. It has the balance to keep and will improve for a few years even if its outgoing nature invites drinking now.

Smooth, ripe and juicy with smooth texture and fresh berry fruit; balanced and long.

Bright and juicy with spice and fresh raspberry; fresh and tangy, long and balanced.

This full-bodied, strongly flavored and firmly structured wine can tackle the juiciest cuts of meat. It smells like blackberries, black pepper and a little wood smoke, tastes rich with ripe fruit and feels somewhat astringent, in a good way.

Smooth and lush with ripe blackberries and spice; silky and showing bright acidity and a long, juicy finish; a nicely balanced wine. 76% Zinfandel, 18% Petite Sirah, 6% Syrah.

With a heady bouquet of berry and peppery spice, new Edmeades winemaker Ben Salazar is showing great talent with Mendocino Zinfandel, producing a fairly large-scale bottling full of intense spice and soft tannins. Graham crackers and oak play gingerly in the background. This is a wonderful wine and a new beginning for Edmeades.

Fresh, bright and juicy with tangy acidity and lively black raspberry fruit; long and showing smoke, spice and chocolate.

The one-star, 90-point Edmeades Mendocino County 2010 is certain to find favor with fans of bold, big-bodied Zins that hold nothing back...

Edmeades Zins are typically on the riper and weightier end of the varietal spectrum, and this one is just that, but its primary message is one of deep, very honest blackberry fruit. It eschews jammy sweetness and shows the grape’s more serious side with blackberries, sweet oak, briary spice and suggestions of dark soil running its length. It is full, fleshy in feel and solidly built, with a little more tannin than is the varietal norm. It would be best to wait for a couple of years here, and the wine has the potential to improve for a half-dozen or more. Good Value.

This Zin delivers what in the right hands makes the variety so appealing--bright, juicy flavor with a hint of sweet spice and a briary finish. There’s nothing very complex or remotely subtle about it. There’s instead just tons of up front fruit flavor, without excess alcohol or heat. Delicious.

The 2007 Zinfandel Mendocino is a super-generic cuvee boasting a deep ruby hue as well as a stunning nose of sweet, briery black cherries, black currants, spice, and an underlying floral character. Abundant flavor, medium to full body, impressive purity, and fine elegance suggest this delicious Zinfandel should drink well for 2-3 years.

Supple and appealingly ripe, with cherry pie aromas and soft, jammy wild berry, toasty vanilla and spice flavors.

This is a beautiful 2006 Zinfandel that sells for a song. This has got to be one of the better values, and of course, 2006 looks to be a vastly superior vintage to 2005 for Zinfandel. This wine, which has some Petite Sirah, Merlot, Syrah, and Grenache blended in, exhibits deep ruby color and a big, sweet nose of peppery black cherry and raspberry liqueur intermixed with spring flowers and earth. The wine is medium to full-bodied, ripe, and altogether a hedonistic mouthful of big Zinfandel. Drink it over the next 3-4 years.

Made in the Edmeades style of high alcohol and exceptional ripeness, this is a powerfully explosive Zin. Fully dry, it's packed with black currant, cassis, plum jam, dark chocolate and spice flavors that are wrapped into hard tannins. Will soften in time. Best now through 2012.

This zin ripened to lush blackberry and fig flavors. It's enriched by oak, smooth and supple, delicious sweet. Catch it as a young wine with roast squab or other game birds.

Edmeades, a true Mendocino pioneer, has crafted an enormously likeable Zin, deeply flavored in black currant, cherry and black raspberry-pie filling and chocolaty, spicy desirousness. But for all its size and high alcohol, the wine retains a silky, elegant mouthfeel.

Exhibits a smorgasbord of aromas, including resiny pine forest notes, black currants, cherry jam, licorice, and incense. Deep and full-bodied, with great fruit, tremendous freshness, and a vigorous, exuberant, flamboyant finish, it will provide pleasure of the next 4-5 years.

This dramatic, perfumed offering reveals resiny notes intermingled with red and black fruits, flowers, and forest floor, medium to full body, outstanding fruit concentration, good underlying acidity, and a touch of tannin. Drink this beefy, bigger-than-life Zinfandel over the next 4-5 years.

Similarly-styled, the 2000 Zinfandel Ciapusci Vineyard is a fat, heady offering with high alcohol, loads of fruit, a mouth-coating style as well as good purity and depth.

Classic Anderson Valley Gewürztraminer. A fragrant wine, brimming with floral, litchi, tangerine, and cinnamon-allspice aromas. Rich, ripe, supple, and frankly delicious. Bone dry, but the fruit is so ripe the wine tastes sweet. Steely, with great balance and harmony.

Remarkable for its creamy peach and pear flavors, it picks up a nice smoke and toast nuance and then keeps the flavors lively through its long, complex finish. (Also appeared 6/1/97).