Plungerhead Old Vine Zinfandel

2009
Lodi
California

Pepper. Alcohol. Oak. Baking spices (nutmeg? cinnamon?). In that order. Much better than whatever else I drank a few days ago that wasn't worth writing about. This had some personality. And some awesome baking spice scent up close. And a heluva kick, which I don't normally like. Not that I do tonight. I don't. But if you're looking for a wine with a kick - grab this. Loved the funky new twist on a twist-off cap. See pic below.



Before I begin, I have lost another dear person in my family that I cared for more than I knew I did. My grandmother's wonderful husband of only 4+ years passed away in a short period of time a couple of weeks ago. He was an incredibly classy, gentle, funny man. I respected him greatly and my grandmother was in love with him. They were beautiful and happy together. They made four years of bliss look like Heaven. My friends and colleagues stood in awe at my tales of their courtship and marriage and travels. Their time together was indeed short, but they packed decades of happiness into their limited time together. DD, thank you for the happiness you brought my grandmother. You will remain in our hearts forever.

For some reason today, an image popped in my head that hasn't been there for a long time. My parents divorced when I was 11. I had a really hard time with it. I dealt with it. I moved on a bit. Then I heavily reminisced for a few years that made me feel very nostalgic and sad - every song from that time period would bring me right back to it. Then I eventually stopped reminiscing and moved on with my own life and just figured all that time spent feeling nostalgic and sad was for a reason - like it was a rite of passage I had to go through in order for me to get to the next phase of my life.

Not long after my parents separated, I was in the car with my mother and we were visiting old friends that she and my dad were friends with when they were together and our families congregated. We were leaving their house and we'd reached the end of the road and were turning to head back to the road to take us home to our house, an hour away now. We passed a house that I couldn't help noticing. It was dark wooden, rustic - slightly haunted looking, yet something about it I liked. It had a bit of junk in the front, but it was big, and I loved the woodeness to it - there were various shades of natural planks making up the house and it gave me an interesting feeling to look at it - not scared, not sad, just a feeling like I had a connection to that house - it made me want to be there. In spite of its degradation, it wasn't really old - just in need of TLC. My mother at that moment as I was silently taking it in at my younger age exclaimed that she and my dad had contemplated buying that house a couple of years ago before separating. I remember thinking in my head: "I sure wish you'd bought it." As I sat at my desk today at work, that image shot into my head and I was filled with a longing for a life that never happened - a corner that wasn't turned and every path changed course from that point on. I felt sure that if they had purchased that house and fixed it up like they had once discussed, my life would have turned out much differently - maybe more happily.

As I began to write tonight, I turned on my Pandora as usual and two songs affected me, back to back, compelling me to write verse from two separate songs. So, here they are, in honor of my memories and my deepest thoughts and reflections today, and in all of their irony:

How can you say, Forever is at your command?
How can you say, The future is in the palm, in the palm of your hand?

When the house was standing,
You'd never have believed it,
When the house was standing,
You'd never have believed...
That gaping hole was once a foundation,
Where you stand now were tools in a basement, And...

How can you say, Forever is at your command?
How can you say, The future's in the palm, in the palm of your hand?

--Palm of Your Hand--
by Cake


So I wanna live in a wooden house,
where making more friends would be easy.

Oh, and I don´t have a soul to save.
Yes, and I sin every single day.

We never change, do we?
We never learn, do we?

So I wanna live in a wooden house,
Where making more friends would be easy.
I wanna live where the sun comes out ...

--We Never Change--
by Coldplay

$13/ 750 ml. bottle
15% alcohol by vol.
8.0 out of 10

6th Sense Syrah

2008
Lodi Appellation

This wine was all chocolate, leather, rasberries and smoke.

I have not felt like posting or even writing much of anything since the untimely passing of my uncle. Everything just feels . . . different. More importantly, wine isn't so great anymore. I used to taste zealously and with anticipation and fun. I just don't feel the same. I go about my days as usual, but now with less zeal when I remember he's gone (which is several times a day). When I catch myself laughing, I feel bad. But I do remember how important laughter was to him and how much joy he brought others and I know he would want me to laugh as much as I can.

So, I am back to review the first wine I've had in awhile that inspired me and that I thoroughly enjoyed. But, more importantly, I felt compelled to write again due to re-connecting with my husband's younger brother. He is at an age finally where he realizes what is truly important. He has been out of our lives for too many years. He came for dinner and we talked, played wiffle ball, rode around in a golf cart, drank wine and toasted life, and ate birthday cake in celebration of his recent birthday. It was the best I've felt since Uncle Bob died, and I am thankful.



Chocolate and rasberries . . .



The hardest day awaits me this year - Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday and it was the one I totally enjoyed sharing with Uncle Bob. He truly was the best. I said some words at the burial of his ashes, and I ended with this poem by the great Emily Dickinson. Life is, truly, too short.

You will not see me, so you must have faith.
I wait for the time when we can soar together again, both aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to its fullest and when you need me, just whisper my name in your heart, I will be there.

--Emily Dickinson--


8.25 out of 10
$16 /750 ml. bottle
15.5% alc. by vol.

Turley Zinfandel

2003
LODI
California

I am shocked to learn that I never reviewed this wine last year! Uncle Bob has brought it for Thanksgiving for the last few years and I thought I'd reviewed it previously. I LOVE it with turkey and the vast other accompaniments we have with our main course. It is rich in flavor and deep in color and rather distinct in its smokey cherry-ness.

We have a varying menu that breaks all starch rules - we have rice, and potatoes and stuffing, AND bread! This year's menu was a wonderfully roasted organic turkey (gift from my boss), mashed sweet potatoes, mashed white potatoes, wild rice salad with cranberries and walnuts, sauteed green beans with garlic, butter lettuce with pignolia nuts and cranberries and celery, pumpkin muffins, sausage stuffing, parsnips and carrots, and pumpkin, apple, chocolate cream and peanut butter pies, and organic vanilla bean ice cream!!!!! Quite a varying degree of flavors.

However, for the main menu flavors, I just love the Turley Zin. Thank you so much to my beloved uncle. :)

Last night was a night well-spent at a local craft center, surrounded by creativity, at yet another wine and food pairing event put on by my favorite artisan food shoppe! The Guy and I accompanied my boss and his wife to yet another fun event. I've got pics and notes to post in a few days.

"We are all unique.
Special.
One of a kind.

With your light, pure soul
Eyes bluer than the sea.
Hair richer than the finest chocolate.

Kind.
Gentle.
Compassionate,
beautiful in every way.

Like an angel,
born of stardust.
Heaven sent.
One of a kind."

(Written by my eldest for me.)

8.5 out of 10
15.6% alc. by vol
$59 / 750 ml

Klinker Brick

2005
LODI
Old Vine Zinfandel

Will buy again.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Thank you for your Dead Arm comments Paso Robles. I love to hear others' takes on wines I've tried. As I had the Dead Arm without food, I especially enjoyed learning what you served it with.

Before I review, check out this very cool wine glass to be used when one glass of wine just isn't enough:

http://www.hammacher.com/publish/70375.asp

I bought Klinker Brick to have at Thanksgiving before Uncle Bob's Turley for those who wanted red. I had (2) bottles left over and opened one as I never did have it on Thanksgiving. One was very good so The Guy opened the second.

A dark red velvet-like color, this full bodied wine was medium dry with a fairly long, slightly, slightly bitter but enjoyable finish. It's scent was “berry” soaked in oak. The taste was very berry up front followed by slight oak and then warmth going down, followed by a very slight vanilla-ness and allover nice balance.

cable knit sweater
extended then enveloping
a welcome safe haven
troubles fade, no need for coping
life becomes new
as time is transended
but for a few

8.25 out of 10
Alc. 15.5% by vol
$16.99 / 750 ml bottle
http://www.klinkerbrickwinery.com/

Dynamite Cabernet Sauvignon

2003
North Coast
Sonoma County, California

Mikey D. - I do like your Dynamite. We do have similar taste. This is a little drier than I normally go for, but the flavor is very good. It's woodsey, smokey and blackberry. It is my wedding anniversary tonight and we never have red meat. But The Guy loves steak, so I bought the good stuff - no antibiotics, no hormone-fed cattle. Top Round steak it was and the Dynamite accompanied it well. Nice pairing. The Guy felt it tasted more expensive than its price.

I have no photo available, but the label by Stephen Ward is of Lake County's "Diamonds" - an Indian Chieftain is illustrated grieving over volcanic stones. The story on the back of the label goes like this: "According to folklore, the Moon wept when she could not be with her love, a Pomo Indian Chieftan. Her tears fell to earth, forming glistening shards. These semi-precious volcanic stones, found nowhere else, remind us that our home is unique." (Personally, having always had a feverous preoccupation for Chief CrazyHorse, this Civil War buff can identify with the moon. I am a white woman thrown over the back of a stallion by one of Crazy Horse's tribesmen and brought back to camp - Crazy Horse comes out to find me, hands tied, by the fire. He scolds his tribesmen for being so rough, unties my hands and takes me to his teepee - OK, wrong blog, sorry.)

And so, I raise my glass to the shards.

8.0 out of 10
13.9% by volume
$17.99 / 750 ml bottle
http://www.dynamitevineyards.com/

The Guy: As we go through the list of wines that The Gal and I have so enthusiastically sampled, I find a few "good" wines that deserve being set on a "I'd Drink that again" list, (note to self, make a short list). The Dynamite was one of those.

Say what you will about being able to find good wines under $10, or even $15. If I had the money and I had to choose between the Dynamite compared to a South Australia Red like Yellowtail Shiraz or Little Penguin Merlot, I'd go for the Dynamite. Much like Red, or The TURK ( A personal favorite of mine), Dynamite tasted like a more expensive wine.

Before starting this blog, the Gal and I routinely spent over $20 on a bottle of wine without thinking twice. We believed that the more expensive the wine, the better it should be. While that is true in a number of cases, I'd be hard pressed to tell you some of the $40 bottles we've had with friends are that much better than the $15/$16/$17 we continue to discover.

The same night we had Dynamite, we had another bottle of Gnarly Head Old Vine Zine ($10.99). A taste test comparison between the two wasn't even close. Yes, on it' s own, we liked Gnarly Head. But after sampling the Dynamite, the Gnarly just didn't measure up.

You'll find that experience to be common around the holidays as you spent time with friends and family sharing wines you bought, or they brought. It's part of the adventure. Just be sure to make Dynamite part of your adventure.

Thanksgiving Update: The following is my wine menu (Chardonnay to accompany appetizers of shrimp and "Bombay" cream cheese, curry, cranberry, coconut dip with stoned wheat crackers), Red Zin for the main meal and turkey (or Chardonnay for those guests who prefer white). I am hoping to also serve a Port with dessert (too many in my new favorite wine store - I was getting dizzy reading labels). Will keep you posted.

2005 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, NAPA
2006 Roux Pere & Fils Macon-Villages Chardonnay, France
2002 Turley Red Zin, Juvenile
2005 Klinker Brick Old Vine Zin, LODI

337 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

2005
Lodi
Cabernet Sauvignon

Would drink again.

Nice post from Pasa Robles, thank you so much for your "breathing" input.

This wine eluded me. My first reaction was too dry, not enough flavor and I don't want any more. The Guy then handed me the last of last night's the Little Penguin and told me to compare. I thought for sure the Little Penguin would taste wicked sweet in comparison, but it didn't. They almost tasted the same to me but I knew they were vastly different. I'm not sure why they tasted so similar (except for possibly the "breathing" effect on the Little Penguin), but it piqued my interest in having another sip.

I then ate some pizza I'd made of whole grain crust, awesme fire-roasted crushed tomatoes, Buffalo mozarella, parmesean, sauteed orange peppers and sauteed baby bella mushrooms (though the back of the bottle suggested it be served with "food acceptable at a Viking feast"). I had another sip of the 337 and it totally grew on me. It went from my wanting to "take it or leave it" to tasting like another glass was in order. I think The Guy liked 337 more than I did (he said he was going to report on it himself - we'll see), but it really improved from my original sip. Though drier than my usual likes, it was good and it accompanied the meal well. It smelled like chocolate and rasberry. It tasted a lot like it smelled with a dry earthiness worked in. Not a lasting finish, but drinkable just the same.

Do not yet see, that, if the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

7.75 out of 10
$12.99 / 750 ml.
14.5% alc. by vol.
California

Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin

2005
Lodi California
Zinfandel

Will definitely buy again at this price.

Thank you, Pasa Robles, for your comments and for once again giving me a new wine for my ongoing list of labels to be tried.

I sent The Guy out for more Sauvignon Blanc yesterday when my family party grew a bit. He came back with what I requested and also a bottle of Gnarly Head. I gave him a hard time because I've had it before and it was nothing to speak of. However, I had not reviewed it here so I let it be.

I had it this evening and ate my complaints of yesterday. I don't know what vintage I've had in the past, but the 2005 was really enjoyable. It's claret color had a slightly sweet, yet heady bouquet that just drew me right in for a taste. No swirling and sniffing here. I swirled once, experienced the aroma, my tastebuds watered and I put it to my mouth. Really good stuff for under $10. I had it with pizza and without later. Very nice combo of cherry and spice with my favorite vanilla and oak mixed in. Please see below for the rating and bottle particulars.

And now onto tonight's meanderings (putting it more toward the bottom to make The Guy happier):

HEADSTONE OF PAUL F. GUERRERA

Always wanting to visit the grave of their great-grandparents,
I walk with our children through the cemetary each week.
I am always pondering the lives that lived beyond the headstones,
But it is yours that draws me in, yours I always seek.

There it is, under a small tree
Red firetruck by your headstone, now literally planted in the ground, once brand new.
Having disintegrated, eroded, moss growing through.
Was it a favorite of yours?
Maybe a gift from Christmas 1967?
Are your parents' hearts still as broken,
as the first day you left earth for Heaven?
Do your mom's tears today still flow?
I imagine they will never end.
Life must go on, but a parent's love will continue to grow.
I always stop and wonder what happened then.

June 25, 1968, same age as my eldest, you were only twelve, and I not yet four,
I instinctively touch the firetruck, closing my eyes and think about you once more.
And, always, your mom, she stays on my mind.
Where is she now, has she managed to somehow, miraculously, move on? Or is she forever stuck in time?

I am now beyond 40,
but you remain a child, left only in someone's memory.
A life unlived, that should have been,
I raise my glass for you, Paul Guerrera, and savor some Old Vine Zin.

8.25 out of 10
14.5% alc. by vol.
$9.99 / bottle
http://www.gnarlyhead.com/