Goodbye Summer, Hello Old Vine Zin from Sobon

Sep 25 2009

While listening to Bob Marley’s “Red, Red Wine” and drinking the Old Vine Zin, I realized that my days of sitting on the deck with a cool glass of Chardonnay were over (everyone sigh in sadness with me). I have to start drinking the more fall appropriate red wines, and this Zinfandel from Sobon Hills is a nice little transition.  Goodbye Viogniers, ciao Chardonnays, au revoir Sauv Blancs, and too-da-loo all other white wines I have re-fallen in love with this summer.  Hello spice, beautiful colors, tobacco, and dark fruit!

One of my favorite things about Zinfandels is that they are jammy, juicy and all about the fruit.  This particular Zin is interesting in the fact that the nose is a little peppery, and when you look for it, you can find a lingering hint of cinnamon, YUM!  The pepper turned me off at first, but once I closed my eyes and took a nice big gulp, I was pleasantly surprised. It has nice oak tannins, but is not overbearing.  It has dark fruit and the ones I really picked out were plum, blackberry and has a nice long finish especially for a young wine.  Another surprising factor is that it stood up well (lasted a long time) for an organic wine.  Usually with an organic wine, which has no sulphites, it goes bad in 1-2 days.  But by the end of day 2, this wine tasted just as fresh as when I first unscrewed it.  Lucky me.

Looking back on this drinking adventure, I would definitely recommend this wine to almost anyone.  A beginning wine drinker would probably like it because of its fruit forwardness and jamminess.  The Zin aficionado would appreciate how true to form it is and the everyday wine drinker would appreciate its approachability.

Lucky for me, this wine was sent to me at no cost, but retails at $13.  It is distributed through Grape Expectations (206.763.4632) and is produced from Sobon Hills in Plymouth, California.