A cheap Zin

I do not like the Cline Zin, although many people do. For a cheap zin I like Ravenswood Sonoma County (not Vintner's Blend).

Dimitri

Napa Ridge. Nothing to do with Napa. Heh-heh.

Dana

But it's the Blend that competes with the cheapo Cline. For my money the Cline has been much better the past 3 years or so.

The Ravenswood Sonoma County is in a higher price bracket. In that price range I'm thinking the basic Renwood might also be a good choice, but my memory may be failing me here WRT the price point.

-- Robert

I've found the Cline CA zin to be surprisingly vintage-dependent (surprising just as in lower end general appelation wines tend to be less vintage variable than say single vineyard stuff). I really liked the '98, loved the '99 (the best under $10 zin I've had in last 5 years), found the '00 drinkable but not worth buying, with the 2001 back to liked.

A lot of (knowledgable) people disagreed with me re the 2000. It had a heavy feel (with an almost portish nose) that appealed a lot to some, but not to me.

Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

I've found that to be true of the Ravenswood Vintner's Blend, too, but I don't know how much of that is the wine and how much is my sense of what I like over time. Honestly, I used to buy lots of sub-US$10 Zins, now I rarely do.

-- Robert

Dale, I'm with you on this: some years I love the Cline CA Zin, others I find it boring. The same for the Ravenswood Vintners Blend, with the '01 the best I've yet tried. At this price point, people should also check out the Rosenblum Vintners Cuvee XXV, which is quite a nice wine for the price.

Mark Lipton

The price difference is about $2-3.

Dimitri

Hey Dimitri my Pac-10 brother,

The Sonoma Ravenswood is better but in a slightly higher price range than the Cline as was pointed out. But if you get it as Costco the Ravenswood is only about $12 instead of the $16 or so in the grocery. Well worth the ~$3 price jump if you're a Costco member.

GS

Well I never said "exciting". But for QPR I would put up the Napa Ridge with the Vitners Blend. I am a cheap skate when it comes to everyday whites and reds.

Rich R.

Hi Dana,

Duh?

Rich R.

The label was sold to The Wine Group, the same folks that bottle Charles Shaw. There's no telling what's in the bottle. Napa Ridge is one of the irksome labels that the 'real' Napa wineries would like to restrict.

Doesn't mean the wine isn't good; some of it might be.

Dana

Dana Myers wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@arrl.net:

Sorry to de-lurk, but didn't you say earlier something like

and

to communicate with consumers in terms they know...

I expect those same consumers don't care about what is in the bottle of "Napa" Ridge... ;D

Yup. Did I write something inconsistent?

Dana