On a recent research trip to offshore California I took the opportunity to sample the wines of the mainland. A wine producer that seemed to consistently deliver top quality wines at a decent price was Ravenswood. They are based in Sonoma County but I was surprised to see that they apparently have some production going on in the little known Central Valley AVA of Lodi (not exactly a hot bed of wine geek interest). Lodi is home to some old vine Zinfandel, hence this bottling.The Ravenswood moto is 'no wimpy wines' and boy thats true. This is a beast of a wine. The colour is an intense purple red but is just a prelude to the coming sensory onslaught. Blackberries and pepper positively explode from the wine, both in the nose and taste. A mouthful gives you three stages of intense flavour: 1) jammy fruit, 2) soooo much pepper and 3) burnt toffee in an exceedingly long finish. Subtle this aint. It almost tastes of the scorching hot Central Valley. This is a wine to enjoy with bbq meat and a strong disposition. I loved it but I have a feeling that for some people this wine would be a little too much. If you like big flavoursome wines then this is for you though. Could be a bit like Marmite though...
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Great post Tom. I see Ravenswood all the time in the supermarkets and have been wondering if they're any good...
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