Zins are my favorite wines. My favorite-Ridge-either geyserville or lytton springs
Least favorite zin-rombauer-too alcoholic and sweet

First of all- Is Mott okay? If mouth to mouth were needed were you going to jump in?

QOTD- Favorite- Probably Peachy Canyon
Least Favorite- 7 Deadly Zins is sometimes too alcoholy for me

Nice show, luv how you trashed the last wine from label to contents. Keeping it real. Awesom

Me love the Zin although I haven’t had a whole lot. Favorite? Damn man, you make me choose one? 2000 Miljenko’s Old Vines Zinfandel was rock and roll tits awesome. I’ve had some great Seghesio’s and Ridge is always there to show contenders a black eye or three. Cline Live Oak Zin does it for me I may be swayed by their solar panel superiority.

Worst: probably Earthquake Zin. I grew up in Cali and I live in Japan so I know seismic activity. Earthquake Zin (I’ve had my share throughout the years) shakes my interest about as much as sleeping cow pissing on a flat rock. Actually, most of what Earthquake puts out is bull crap juice in a cheeseball label.

Hi Gary,

I loved those Rafanelli wines of the late 90’s and Robert Biale always makes great stuff, in my opinion. Great show and hope to meet you in Las Vegas one of these days.

kind regards,

matt

QOTD 1 (Best): Rafanelli
QOTD 2 (Worst): 2 Buck Chuck

Gary- you look like you’re losing weight… maybe it’s the haircut.

Thunder… Thunder… ThunderCats…Hohhhhhhh! I had the plastic shield and sword when I was a kid. Gotta look for them in my folk’s attic. Tell me, were you also a Voltron fan?

QOTD: Favorite is Robert Biale “Black Chicken”. Least favorite is any white zinfandel, it’s far better as a red.

Gary- you look like you’re losing weight… maybe it’s the haircut.

Thunder… Thunder… ThunderCats…Hohhhhhhh! I had the plastic shield and sword when I was a kid. Gotta look for them in my folk’s attic. Tell me, were you also a Voltron fan?

QOTD: Favorite is Robert Biale “Black Chicken”. Least favorite is any white zinfandel, it’s far better as a red.

“…and laugh at the label.” Hilarious.

QOTD: Favorite was probably one from Four Hands/Vines (can’t remember), “Maverick”. Least favorite, the one I had at a BBQ this weekend. Tasted like cough syrup but the name is escaping me.

QOTD: I loved the Frank Family you recommended last year for Thanksgiving and I recently had a Papapietro-Perry recently that I was really disappointed with since I usually like their zins.

QOTD: I really dont ever drink Zin….I tend to enjoy wines with high acid, lower body and low alcohol, so Zin never really pleases my pal. Some chilled white zin with a bbq chicken sandwhich however is one my joys of the summer!

QOTD best 2006 Ridge Vineyards ( i know its a blend i still like it)
worst ravenswood
honorable mention, barefoot cellars, for like 5 bucks its great.
Gary, i gotta say i am on the fence about the ratings on the show. on one hand i like having you give a quantifiable reference for how you like a wine, in the form of a number rating. however sometimes it hard to decide if you like the wine. i have seen you talk a cab franc or something up up then give it a 79 or so, i have also seen you give a wine you called over sugared or something a 89+. then i watch a show where you neglect to give ratings and i am not sure what to think. should i pay more attention to what you say or what you rate as far as discerning your opinion of a wine goes. I know you would tell me to trust my own pallate and that’s why i love your show, but sometimes the money is tight enough that i have to trust another opinion before i buy and for me you are my point of reference.

Again, the world of Zins is, for my personal uses, years behind me, and there are SOOO MANY landmark, and historical wines/winemakers/vineyards of pedigrees like royalty. Some of my first exposures were to the early/mid 1980’s Frog’s Leaps of Larry Turley, co- consulted by Helen, even before their names were A-listed.

It seems that in this ‘My Zin is better than your Zin’ world, no one can enjoy a glass of White Zin, without a hail of derogatory comments and insinuations. One of the qualities that got me into the wine world was that, as a waiter in a high quality bistro/ niteclub, I was taught not to disparage peoples’ taste. Years later, in retail, we’d recognize that there’s “no accounting for taste, mine inclusive…” as my good wine rep, Mr. Pat Fisher used to say.
Me: “The Robert Mondavi Winery White Zin, Ma’am?” (This, before they even created the Woodbridge Brand) “Delightful. Would you care for a glass, or the full bottle?”

And I actually have fond memories of not only selling that wine like it was water in the desert, but enjoying to drink it, knowing it was going to be enjoyed by chicks/GF/date.

Yea, the Porter Bass has a non-Zinny quality about them, but I’m way into their loving technique/ eco-green practices. And the results are not laden with sickly sweet fruit intensity. Once, I christened their Zin as “A good Zin for Merlot Lovers”.

Neyers is great quality winemaking (Chards, too). And another point is that, at least in the world of this varietal, one need go no higher than $40, or so to be in the world of it’s finest offerings,(unnecessary cult-names excluded).

QotD – though I’ve had the Turley Hayne, Chase, Ridge ATP’s, Raffi’s, and on and on, an early regular of my table-waiting day cemented my love of zin, back in the 80’s – Madrona, El Dorado Estate.

Worst – all marketers proclaiming quality, heritage, ‘old- vines’ ,while selling utter CRAP, like Gnarly Vine. Suck it, Gnarly.

QotD: Best: Wellington Vineyards (specifically the 2003). Worst: Sausal Winery 2003

Hi GV,

HA! – You mention the sniffy snif, and the jump right over it CLASSIC. I love that you didn’t redo the whole episode, keeps you human and keeps it real.

Glad to see Cali zins on the show, too bad they didn’t make a better showing. There are so many out here that it’s hard to always have winners. I started drinking the low budget and previously very tasty Ravenswood and it really helped me get into wine. It’s funny that you push it aside in this episode and many of the commentors are trashing it. Hard for me to trash the nostalgia of the wine that brought me into this world.

I agree that 30 bones for a mid-level Zin is too much. But you make a good case for the Neyers until the boxing analogy.

QOTD: 1.The one glass at had at the Wynn Country Club with my girlfriend now wife. Never did get the name. DAMN IT!
QOTD: 2. Rancho Zabaco

Hi GV,

HA! – You mention the sniffy snif, and the jump right over it CLASSIC. I love that you didn’t redo the whole episode, keeps you human and keeps it real.

Glad to see Cali zins on the show, too bad they didn’t make a better showing. There are so many out here that it’s hard to always have winners. I started drinking the low budget and previously very tasty Ravenswood and it really helped me get into wine. It’s funny that you push it aside in this episode and many of the commentors are trashing it. Hard for me to trash the nostalgia of the wine that brought me into this world.

I agree that 30 bones for a mid-level Zin is too much. But you make a good case for the Neyers until the boxing analogy.

QOTD: 1.The one glass at had at the Wynn Country Club with my girlfriend now wife. Never did get the name. DAMN IT!
QOTD: 2. Rancho Zabaco

qotd – Frank Family Zin on last year’s thanksgiving show was very good. Bought a case after trying it. The worst are too many to mention. I liked the old Turly’s but the later ones are not as good in my opinion – they taste “candyfied” me. Good show. Love the battle of the varietals, but would rather see them blind.

Hi Gary just a response to Edwardo’s? comment: I think that guests really work well when they are the right guests; for example Jancis Robinson and Hendrik Shoma were awesome, and of course your dad Sasha and the Mottsta on ep 600. These are some of my favourite shows and they are great to watch. It only doesn’t work when the guests are really bad (not your fault by the way). Keep the guests coming in but pick carefully! The old skool shows rock but we need the guests also.

never had one, but based on your previous descriptions of what a good zin is like the only part that appeals to me is the black pepper. I’m not into the over the top fruit, or cali wine in general. When I want over the top fruit, I eat rasberries from my parents backyard. Am I the only CKC who wants old world? I walk into a wine shop, they take one look at me and recomend australian fruit bombs with monkeys on them. I feel alone and unwanted. Help me gary.

Got to admit my wife likes Sutter Home White Zin since forever. At one time I was able to buy two bottles for less than $7.50 each, when they were running a breast cancer pink ribbon benefit promotional. I don’t know how they made money for the cause at that price, unless the distributor counted it as their gift to the cause.

As for RED zins the latest and best i’ve had was a Portugese 2006 Zin/Tinto Rioja blend from Whole Foods

QOTD: My favorite Zin by far right now the current vintage (2004, I think) of the Caparone Zinfandel from Paso Robles. I got notes of black olives, crab meat, and beef blood. And it changed constantly in the glass with good acidity to back it up. For $16 it’s a steal.

where’s SS Chris?

qotd? i love the four vines products and the way they profile different flavors under names the consumer can understand

Zins are ok, got away from them, like you said, with the values in other varietals out there.

QOTD: I guess this is an area that I haven’t ventured into yet but will make this a goal to find one I possibly like. Not enough experience yet with Zin’s. I will be working on this and post my fav later.