Old Vines California Zinfandel

Grandes Dames tasting 2/1/23. My 4th, group 3rd. Slate mineralogy. Dark cherry, plum. Hint of mint Kiss of VA

John had this 2 years ago

Revisiting the ‘20 Old Vines after a year or two in the cellar. Dusky clear purple. Sweet cherries and earth on the nose. Smooth, rich, almost no tannin. A lovely creamy, dark finish like plum pie with ice cream. These Old Vine blends are some of the best values in the Turley line up if not all of CA Zinfandel.

Big flavor, good taste

Worked well with seafood lettuce wraps

Solid, but a little too astringent, concentrated and pruney for me. Big at 15.2%, as you would expect. With Moroccan-inspired chickpea tomato stew and fried polenta.

The recently released (10/22) 2020 Old Vines Zinfandel from Turley is vey lean compared to prior years. It’s surprisingly light and transparent in the glass with a fresh, dark fruit nose. On the palate, there isn’t much fruit and drying tannins are prominent. Not a full as other Old Vines offerings but perhaps will offer more in a year or two.

For a zin I up this rating to 9

Bryan had this 7 months ago

Steve had this 8 months ago