Zins or zin blends I've tasted recently at the winery (on Monte Bello Ridge) include 03 York Creek, 04 York Creek, 04 Geyserville, 05 Three Valleys ($20, Ridge's "volume" zin, distributed internationally),and 05 Ponzo. Haven't tried 05s of either Geyserville or York Creek. (Note that Ridge has made single-site zinfandels from those two flagship vineyards since 1966 and 1967 respectively. About 10 vintages later I started tasting and occasionally buying them. In decent vintages these zins can age and improve for twenty years, I've seen it.)
All were respectable wines but stylistically diverse. I found the 03 York Creek ($30 at winery) strongly spicy and jammy on the nose with a touch coffee. Taste was hard, tannic, a jumble of fruit acids and flavors, a strong ageworthy structure. A hard, serious zin, for serious people. Or patient ones. (14.4% alc.) Winery's notes added that it was low-yielding with small berries from the dry-farmed vineyards. 04 York Creek: distinctive chocolate-blueberry smells. Smelled a bit "hot" (alcoholic); it's 14.8%. Later a particular impression of Hershey chocolate bar on the nose (a strong olfactory reference point many people in North America grow up experiencing). Taste, hot but with beautiful, captivating balance. Retail staffer remarked that the winery had done a late-picked style with the York Creek zin for a few years (WHAT??) then added she was glad personally that it had returned to a dry style, without residual sugar. I paused to give thanks, then bought some at $28.
04 Geyserville ($33) had a familiar aroma of bright raspberries. Concentrated on palate with extreme raspberryish fruit. 05 Three Valleys had a bright, (I wrote) "confused" style on nose, with coffee. Rich meaty smells. Appealing on the palate, less of an edge than the rest of these, almost integrated. 05 Ponzo ($26) had rich, dark-berry aromas, coffee, blackberries. Almost meaty. Anise, herbal. Taste: strong acid and fruit. Bright, rich. This vineyard in the Russian River Valley is new to me among Ridge's zins, this one was impressive.-- Max