+MUST TRY+Chronic Cellars Paso Robles Purple Paradise
United States of America: Paso Robles, CA
95% Zinfandel; 5% Petite Sirah (red)
2007
$14.00
89 pts
One of the best California Zins I've had, and at less than fifteen bucks per delicious bottle, a wine I highly recommend. Our friend from the building Gail brought this over last night, and she, Dana, Scott and I hung out really enjoying the Chronic Cellars Purple Paradise. The color is a pretty purple, as the name suggests. On the nose, I got plenty of black pepper with hints of red berries. The taste profile? Strawberries, chocolate (Scott called it right with fresh milk chocolate) and then, on the back end, the Petite Sirah comes through, with a vegetal or herbal component, green pepper maybe. Beneath it all lies a a delicate spiciness which works well. The label on this
wine is wild, too: a smiling Day of the Dead-like skull, on a black background with the wine's name in a font reminiscent of Halloween or horror films. Turns out the young producers (who went to college in the area and became fascinated with the wine culture there) used to employ the term chronic to describe anything cool to them, and thus the name Chronic Cellars. A fun but quality wine...probably only available to Chicago-area residents via the Internet, but well worth the cost of shipping. A +MUST TRY+.Seghesio Family Vineyards Sonoma Zinfandel
United States of America: Sonoma County, CA
Zinfandel (red)
2007
$23.99
85 pts
This is by no means a budget-priced bottle of wine (given as a gift to us over a year ago at a party we held). And having done a little research, I see that it has scored very nicely, even in the hands of some tough professional critics. But for my palette, the Seghesio Family Vineyards Zinfandel is just not a winner--especially priced over twenty bucks. I decanted this wine for more than hour, giving it some time to really open up. The nose offers some smokiness (which I like), but is dominated by jammy dark fruit, a candy-like sweetness that I find unappealing. I will say this, however: it is very aromatic. The color is a rather dark violet. As for taste, lots of blueberry jam, with some peppery spice on the back end, finishing with a lingering green vegetable flavor (and you can really taste the alcohol). I can see why the pros like this wine, since it does offer rich coloring, strong aromatics, and a complex taste profile (with at least three distinct tastes, in succession, that transition reasonably well). So what's my problem with this wine? It's elemental: I don't like the dominant taste, reminding me a bit of the old Blueberry Buckle baby food that I once liked (sadly, into my teens), articifical, candy-esque, and ultimately unsatisfying, lacking substance. Generally, I prefer an Old World taste profile, with more earth and dirt and flowers and minerals than fruit (or at least more of a balance with the fruit), and this wine is exactly the kind of artificial-tasting, fruit-forward wine that I just don't care for, although I readily admit that many people do. If you prefer fruit (especially jammy blueberries) over farmland, rocks and flowers, you may enjoy this one, but me...not so much.
