Zepaltas Wines

We had some guests in from Japan last week, and we got down to some serious tasting of our wines at the winery, and over dinner. We opened a bunch of wines from 2007 and 2008 just to see how they were doing. Since I made all these wines, I will try to refrain from “reviewing” these wines and try to give you a feel for how the wines will age, and when I think they will be at their best, how they paired with the foods….

The Appellation Series 2008:

08 Russian River Pinot Noir
Ok we made this wine as sort of our take on a village wine. We wanted something that would drinking well earlier in its life, and have good value. Right now, the wine needs a little air (1/2 hour to breathe or decanting), but once opened up it sings-loudly. Really great RRV flavors on this wine. Surprisingly more complex than I ever expected. A bit of tannin is holding up the flavors nicely. No need to hold this one if you don’t feel like it.

08 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
This wine is finally putting itself back together after bottling. I feared it to be too simple early on, but that is not the case. Lots of layers and structure If I dare say it-ok I won’t say that it is “Burgundian”- but we were getting flavors of earth, mushroom, & red currants. I am really happy with this wine. We will be releasing this wine in February of 2010

The 2008 Single Vineyards:

08 Suacci Vineyard
It is still in barrel, but I had to poke my thief in to see how things changed since before harvest. I am glad how this extra time in barrel has given some extra layers to this Pinot Noir. It is probably the richest that Suacci has ever been, but the lowest alcohol (13.6%) watch for this bottling in early 2010.

08 La Cruz Vineyard Pinot Noir
A current release off the mailer right now. I think that this is a great wine to put in the cellar. It has layers and layers built in, but it just seems like time is going to be very good for this wine. I think the addition of the extra clone in this wine was the key to this wine. It was tasting better and better as the day went on. Hold this wine at least a year.

2006 Rosella's Vyd. Syrah
I was curious to see how this wine was doing. Definitely getting “Rhoney” Earthy, layered, gamey and nice blackberry fruit. I picked this wine a bit earlier in 2006 and it translated into a wine that is less heavy handed than vintages past. The stem inclusion is showing pretty good and not unbalancing the wine. This wine -as always- needs some decanting. This wine shows best the day after. So if you are going to drink it on a Friday, I would open it Thursday.

2007 Rosella's Vyd. Syrah
A new release so we had to see how it was doing. I really like the fruit character on this wine. It seems like it should fall in line with the rest of the Rosella’s Syrahs. Give it a year, and serve it something braised..meat that is-not tofu! Don't get me wrong I like tofu just not with syrah.

Continued in part 2-the dinner wines and pairings