Thanks for a most interesting post.
Tom S
"Ed Rasimus" in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com... | snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com| wrote: | | | Paul Draper also talked about ripeness or over ripeness | | of Zinfandel in California. ... | | That's very interesting. I hadn't paid much attention with | recent releases, but recall that only a few short years ago ... | that Ridge Zins were commonly running in the high 15% | range. |... | Similarly, here it seems that Ridge regularly offers at | least one and often two "late harvest" or "late picked" | among the six regular zin labels each year.
I was remarking about this also, in email to Mike. I'd followed Ridge's Advance Tasting Program since `81 or earlier, and certain years especially produced numbers of red wines with very high alcohol and/or residual sugar (albeit in the small experimental lots that Ridge often sent out to its ATP subscribers only). They were piling up in the early or middle 1990s. Such wines are glorious in certain types of cooking -- in reduction sauces, with berries and game, in marinades -- which I didn't do often enough to use them up.
| | Paul Draper did say that ... the smaller vineyards used to | | make the ATP wines ... have sometimes accidentally gotten | |over ripe. | | I dropped out of ATP a couple of years ago, but my experience | was that ripeness wasn't as big a factor in ATP quality as the | bouts with TCA and Brett.
My experience was different, I dropped in part because of the overripe red wines piling up! I'm sorry to hear about the TCA experience -- a serious defect, normally random by bottle. I saw little very TCA myself from Ridge in the last 25 vintages.
Cheers -- Max
It is interesting to see what Paul Draper said on the labels of some of his Zinfandels a few decades ago.
Ridge California Zinfandel Shenandoah 1978. Alcohol 15.9% by volume(95% Zifandel, 5% Petite Sirah)
"78 Zinfandel, Late Harvest, bottled March 1980. This vintage was the most unusual of my 10 years at Ridge. The vey warm weather just before harvest ripened all of our Zinfandel vineyards quickly and virtually simultaneously. These old vines went well beyond normal maturity and gave us this rich, full flavored wine. With its intense regional fruit it should be appealing even when very young, yet will develop further if laid down for three or four years. PD (3/80)". Initial suger in grapes at harvest 25.4% by weight; residul sugar in finished wine 0.27% by weight.
Ridge California Zinfadel Essence Lodi 1972. Vine-shriveled grapes, Buena Vista Vineyard. Bottled June 1974. Alcohol 14.4% by volume.
"In any given year, the grapes ripen sooner in Amador and Lodi than in the north coast counties, which permitted us, even in 1972, to make an essence from Lodi. Although in a port bottle, ths unusual, naturally sweet wine is not fortifed and will probably oxidize if not consumed witin a day or two of opening. PD (6/74)." Reducing sugar 6.7%(4.9% fructose, 1.8% glucose), total acidity .78% as tartaric.
Reply to snipped-for-privacy@cwdjr.net .
DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.