2006 Ridge Zinfandel East Bench

A very small production of East Bench gets made every year and rarely makes it to Connecticut. Our distributor only had a case, and offered it to me as we buy a lot of Ridge for BONDA. I liked the wine, but it was a little hot (too much alcohol) and surprisingly did not have a lot of fruit.

Jamie had stored it in his cellar, so it was a perfect temp, but wasn't like any Ridge I had from the 00's. 100% Zinfandel, it was mellow. As it opened up and warmed up a bit, the big raisiny Zin flavors came out, taming the alcohol. I think it needs more time in the bottle as the '03s and '04s from Ridge are drinking awesome now.

04.12.08/ SWT 1996 Ridge Lytton Springs

In follow-up to the last post, about our wine tasting at Sam's house in April, the next wine was this '96 Lytton Springs. I love Ridge wines, and it was a pleasure to try a Lytton with some age. We tend to drink a fair amount of it from the 2003, 2004, 2005 vintages.

Jamie declared: "This baby's all grown up!" Featuring a nose of fig with hints of pink peppercorn achored with a load of spice.

Sam was impressed by the wine's ageability - letting it breathe for about an hour enhanced the flavor, yet it could have been decanted.

It tasted like an aged Ridge, but still has the fresh zintastic roasted plum, dried raisin, touch of cedar flavors. It is bordering on closing out, so it was good that we opened it that night!

2005 Ridge Geyserville

This is the 40th vintage of Geyserville and we found it to be very zinny. I cannot remember the percentages, but it was a lot more Zin than previous years, with some Carignane (17%) and Petite Syrah or Alicante (6%) . Lots of raisin. Surprisingly this wine needs some time in the bottle to settle.

01.26.07 NV Marietta Old Vine Red Lot # 44

Courtenay and I went to Brooklyn last night to have dinner with our friends Clara and Aaron. We ate a Jack the Horse Tavern which is in their neighborhood and Aaron has been raving about for the last few months. The vibe was good and the food was tasty. The service was a little spotty, but we were a table of six (no excuses). Our cocktails too awhile, and they came out two at a time. Our apps came out the same way. We had a fantastic time. Jay joined us while Jayma was at a bachelorette party and our friend Saman also broke the bread - she had the mussels which were fantastic.

Aaron and I order hangar steaks and I chose the Marietta as a pairing. I have had their more expensive wines, and have always found them delish. This Old Vine Lot 44 was about $34 on their list, but should have been a lot less (in my mind). Their list was not the best and didn't have anything exciting on it. The Marietta kind of sucked. It had very little character, and sweet notes of Zinfandel, but nothing interesting.

To follow it up, I got a little adventurous and order a Bordeaux blend from Virginia. I asked out waiter if he had tried it - at first he said no, then yes and that is was great. We got it about ten minutes later. I thought it might be corked - but I called a wine corked last week that wasn't - so I let it ride. Jay took a sip and said yes, it is corked. I called the waiter back to ask if this was how the wine should drink. He didn't know, but cleared all the glasses, and brought the list back a good 7 to 10 minutes later. By this time, we were done eating and did not want any more wine. Now with good, timely service, we probably would have had another bottle or two - but there you go.

We had a wonderful time with our friends, had a round of cocktails and a round of after dinner drinks. Court and I had to go back to CT, but they continued the party, as they are city dwellers.

01.09.08 Trying Wine for the Restaurant

Luckily the FCWAC still had some tasting left in them after the Staglin, as Jamie and I have compiled about twelve bottles of wine to try for BONDA. Generally we sit down with dinner and have a bottle at a time - wines that we have ordered as sample bottles, or new vintages that we get a case blind - to write the wine descriptions on the wine list, and to just check them out.

The picture, which I am having trouble posting, shows all the wine we tried, not all of the bottles being finished. I will give a quick recap of the wines but no go into too much detail as they officially cannot rank in the 365 Wines schema.

2006 Merryhill Cabernet Sauvignon: this is a wine we got for by the glass on a recomendation from Mike and Rob Makin. It had lots of cotton candy on the nose with earthy notes, high red fruit and medium tannins. Jamie noticed a lot of butterscotch. It was really tough coming off the Staglin, and most of the group had their palates upturned.

2005 Ridge Pagani Ranch: this wine only comes around every once and awhile so I was happy to score a case. Lots of elderberry and dark chocolate with a little acetone. It has the most Zin of any Ridge wine, a fact that made Sam call the wine "Very Zinny". Could benefit from more time in the bottle. I think they release a handful of their wines too soon. I usually sit on them for a while before putting them on the list.

2005 Ridge Lytton Springs: this is one of those Ridges that needs to sit for awhile. We ordered a case for a customer's party, so we had to dig into a bottle to make sure it was good. A bit of acetone on the nose with a wheated cereal note and almost a honeyed finish. Nice raspberry and blackberry fruit.