Thursday, February 14, 2008

The Challenge


family recently returned from the great wine making Napa Valley and brought me back a special bottle of red which i have not opened yet. while talking on tuesday evening my friend J noticed id bought a bottle of Gallo Zinfandel (im currently drinking my way through this at the moment, great bottle), this sparked a conversation into what was a good bottle of zinfandel and i had to say the Gallo as it was the only one i could think of at the time. J went on to say that his sister (a serious wine enthusiast, she made my very special bottle of red) from Napa is always on the look out for a great zinfandel and with myself and my partner planning on going out there this summer it presented a challenge to me.
so im now on the hunt for a great Zin can i find one in th UK that is accessible from the high street or will i have to wait and find one in the cooler hills of California.
although im already a fan of the Gallo im sure that this will not excite my soon to be friend in Napa so i really think that a lot of thought is needed for this task.
so whats the specification? well the Zinfandel needs to be dark and thick in color almost black with a deep berry taste hints of pepper. ideally the wine needs to be served between fridge and room temperature and possibly from california or its native italy, there could be some wines from greece too but we will see what i find along the way.

2 comments:

Vinogirl said...

Aha! As I always espouse...wine beauty is in the taste buds of the beholder. Drink what you like and, generally, like what you drink. I know quite a bit about wine and consider myself to have average/good tasting prowess but sometimes it gets in the way of pure, unadulterated tasting pleasure...and when you just want to get plastered. Wine snobs are insufferable...you could train a monkey (forgive me for taking your name in vain), to know as much as most of them profess. Just enjoy the stuff for God's sake...drink it in copious amounts...in public...cheese off allah...annoy muslims :)
On the quest for a good Zin...it does haunt me I must admit. Of late I have had a very passable, '06 Seghesio and '04 Madrigal, Sonoma and Napa respectively. I'm afraid you will probably only find a Sonoma 'Ravenswood' in Sainsburys, (I did in July), but it worked admirably with Thuds homemade chili....yum! But what a challenge...I need to pull up my socks and find something delightful for you this summer (will have to BBQ...don't have a heart attack Thud...Napa in August just too hot for chili). Keep challenging yourself and drink more wine.

monkey said...

thanks for reading my blog, I have tasted the Ravenswood once before and quite liked it. thanks for the encouragement you would be pleased to know that iv just started a 04 cabinet that im sure you are familiar with and very nice it is too . we are looking forward to summer and most definitely the warmth and the wine.