California Zinfandel’s That Are Highly Rated

California Zinfandel’s That Are Highly Rated – Episode #208

April 4, 2007

Wines tasted in this episode:

Question of the day: “How do you manage your cellar”

Gary Vaynerchuk tackles four serious red Zinfandel’s today and is excited to share his thoughts, please share yours.

Having trouble seeing this video? Click here for the Quicktime version

255 Responses

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April 5, 2007

geespot
Hey GV, lurker here, coming to you via Cork’d. I suppose that answers the QOTD, yeah.

Love the show, think you’re on to something huge here. What’s the Four Vines score, btw? Okay. Enough for my first post. Too many archived episodes to get to… Oh, same name as on Cork’d, obvious perhaps.
April 5, 2007

Ferrigno
I think Gary scored the Four Vines Dusi Ranch 92 points in his mind. What’s your guess?
April 5, 2007

Trish da' Dish
I use Cellar Tracker–I love it! I have less than $500 of wine on hand, but it is so cool because you can generate reports, and usu. you only have to enter part of a name and your vintage year, and it populates all of the other info. fields for you. Sweet!
April 5, 2007

Thomas
Here is a lurker from Germany – love your show. QOTD: I also use cellar tracker – great website. Please do more Rieslings – the greatest white wine grape, especially in spring/summer. And 2005 vintage was awesome not only in Bordeaux…
April 5, 2007

John Coyne
Gary, it’s funny you mentioned banana on the nose of the Seghesio Zin. In the early to mid 90’s, after a period of unemployment, I was drinking value priced wines from my local supermarket. A large number of those wines were various red wines from the Gallo winery in Sonoma. Regardless of the label, they had a definite nose and taste of banana. I had never encountered this before(I have been drinking wine since the early 60’s). It was consistant for a few years, in fact, in some of the Gallo winery more value priced wines, it was quite prevelant. I always wondered what was the reason for the banana notes.
QOTD. When my cellar gets low, I manage to buy replacement wines to fill it up. Simple.
April 5, 2007

KenP
I love Zins. Guilt free. Retire the exotic vocabulary. Reflection takes a holiday. If done well Zins give this one, at least, a hint, an amourous nod to more beloved Rhones. Delightful in a tight spot. The varietal deserves space in one’s cellar. I have relatives in Montana who love it over ice. AAARRRGH! Though not exactly an emerging demographic, (the state flower is the satellite dish), but, hey, they’re drinking.
April 5, 2007

Veronica
Nice review! Love your site! Neil from http://neildrinkswine.blogspot.com turned me on to you. Carol Shelton’s wines are very nice, indeed. Have you tried D-Cubed Zinfandel? Great stuff!

I manage my wine cellar (100 bottles) mainly by keeping it in my head and admiring it every so often. I also keep all my wine receipts.

cheers!
Veronica
April 5, 2007

Andrew G
Gary-

Jesus thank you for the shoutout for the Florida Gators! Why did you pick the Buckeyes to win the title??? Clearly Florida was the better team! You are the best, though, for keeping it real. Go Gators, we are the champions! University Ave. was rocking on Monday night!
April 5, 2007

YoungDave
ZINS, SON!! Thanks for another solid EP after a dishartening (but well deserved) day off.

P.S.- I called the Old World disclaimer as soon as ou spit the Seghesio! By far the mosto classic warning to the Old World “Peeps” yet.

QOTD: Well, Dave’s current “cellar” is really just the remnants of the last two “buy 6, get 20% off” purchases at my fine neighborhood Wine Emporium in Boston: One Chenin Blanc from S. Africa, an Argentinian Malbec, a Burgundy Pinot, a Valpolicalla Classico Superiore, a Big House Red, and one each Alsacian Reisling and Gewertz. So to actually answer the question: I use the good ol’ noggin…or just look at the 7 total bottles in my apartment. (Oh, how I long for the day that I own a more permanent residence where I can accumulate more wine!)
April 5, 2007

Jack2112
What an insane day, way too late to be posting, but is it ever REALLY too late? Besides, I had to check fantasy baseball.

Good episode GV, I enjoyed the comments, and you get an A+ for the Lionel Ritchie comment, fantastic.

QOTD: Alas…I am in the process of building my own cellar. And I only have about 20 bottles, so no reason for keeping track. I’m very much hoping that will change over time! But darnit, I just keep drinking them.

I thought you’d wear one of your NEW Tshirts today!!!

Jack2112
April 5, 2007

Atreyu
Hey Gary!
I am not a big fan of Zins.
I manage my veeeery small cellar just by listing the wines on Word. You know what is funny? I keep my cellar in my office on campus! I have lots of room in the closets and the temperature is cool all year round! Of course, I shouldn’t say it to my collegues!
April 5, 2007

Jason R.
Lars – You are scaring me. This is the same set up for me. Excel spreadsheet with 3 tabs. Current, Drank, Wish List. This way I keep notes, and also track of pricing around the country on certain items.

I did enter all of my Bordeaux into cellar tracker and then quit. There was just too much info and from above “FLUFF”. I will occasionally check it out for notes on some wines – More to see how they are progressing and weather I should pop or wait. More often than not, I continue to wait.

Oh by the way – I was a lurker about 208 ep’s ago and Jason R. sent me. Shoppers Discount Liquor, Free Swag

****Free Shipping tomorrow on all LARGE FORMAT!!!! Do I hear a second???
April 5, 2007

Capt M
Regards KAHUNA. I’m driving in the morning, with my kids, to our home in the highlands of Chiriqui. About a 6-hour drive. Will try the Gravity Hills Tumbling Tractor (Zin) this weekend. Will let you know how that goes. Regards and Happy Easter to you and your wife.
April 5, 2007

Matt the Lurker
I have my cellar organized by 3 different methods, each laid out on the x, y and z axis. Top to bottom is by region. Side to side separates the wine makers. And front to back is sorted by aging potential. The ageworthy wines go in the back so you have access to the drinkable stuff in the front. Of course, when I explain this system to the ladies they are all very impressed and they ask me “how is it that you have become so wise?” and “I wish I had a big strong man with such keen organizational skills!!” If any of them were here now I would have them post a response as well, but oddly they are not.

Maybe I’ll just sign up for cellartracker.
April 5, 2007

MBG
QOTD:

http://www.intelliscanner.com/products/wine/index.html

my personal cellar is:

http://www.intelliscanner.net/mbg/wine/
April 5, 2007

matt3866
No more lurking for me Gary. Great episode.
April 5, 2007

glenn
QotD: noggin. for 700+ bottles.
April 5, 2007

t_moderne
I am a lurker and a relative newbie. T_moderne referred me to the site and told me to comment. Let’s give a shout out to T_modene. Now send me the bag!
April 4, 2007

Jerry the 2THDR
QOTD : I go out of my way not to manage the collection. I make a half assed attempt to put like vintages together to avoid letting something age too long,BUT the real kick is to get down on the floor and find a really great wine that you forgot you had or one you got before you found out how highly rated it became, or one you can’t ever remember buying and you take it to a restaurant and your favorite waiter opens it for you and takes a taste and its just great and he thinks you really know your wines and you humbly accept his praise and you wonder who in the hell put that in your celler. You know what I mean. Jerry the 2THDR
April 4, 2007

Brookhouser
GARY-

Great Episode….funny you mentioned the question….I am keeping track in my head right now….and I can probably rattle off bottles and quantities…but it is getting hard with upwards of 200+ in th ecellar now….I will be puting together a spreadsheet here soon…I think:)
April 4, 2007

H-Why
QOTD: I’ve been using Cork’d – http://www.corkd.com. Just simple enough for me to keep track of things without much effort at all.
April 4, 2007

cpd
QOTD: Excel
April 4, 2007

David K
I too would like to know GV’s Four Vines score.

How can you do a highly rated zin episode without a single Ridge in the lot?

I manage my celler with my noggin. Any wine worth drinking is worth remebering. And, I have 500+ bottles to remember.
April 4, 2007

dadobs
I agree with Riezin’s comment #122. I’ve been trying Seghesio zins for years given all the press they’ve garnered. Still, the love connection hasn’t happened, though I gotta admit that they seem to improve with bottle age compared to other zins. Had a 2000 Seghesio old vines a few weeks ago and thought that it was at least 2-4 points better than when it came out; maybe that’s the secret….
April 4, 2007

Art Rose
Badly actually, in my noggin as you say. But i have a lot of stuff in cases, not full cases often, and mixed cases as i consolidate, so i tend to drink what i can see, or what is in front. And then, periodically, when i go looking for something special that i know is buried somewhere, i tend to fortuitously find a gem or two i’ve forgotten….and also, unfortunately, wines i should have long since drunk. On the other hand, as they are largely “old world” wines the passage of time does not necessarily diminish the pleasure.