Gnarly Head: Old Vine Zin 2010

Gnarly Head
Old Vine Zin 2010
Varietal: Zinfandel
Lodi, California
10.00 USD 

Our old vine zinfandel has a gnarly core of rich, dark berry flavors with layers of spice, plum pepper and vanilla balanced by a light hint of toasted oak.  Break out a bottle of Gnarly Old Vine Zin and pair with BBQ pork ribs, mom's favorite chili or steak fajitas. [back bottle label]

Ok, I took quite a hiatus from writing this blog what with graduation and moving and the new job/life thing going on, but I have been wanting to get back into it and until now I really haven't had the kick in the ass to really start again.  I bought a bottle of this in preparations for Hurricane Sandy...yeah yeah I know what you are thinking. Only one bottle? How storm ready could I have really been?  As it turned out I didn't even open it until this past Friday.  Marie and I were enjoying one of our first weekends home in about two months and I just wanted some wine.  So over a dinner I managed to only get about a third of the way through the bottle.  Weak, I know but I was a bit bummed by it.  On the nose the first thing I noticed was the extreme dryness of it.  There wasn't much fruit apparent...maybe a bit of some kind of dark berry (couldn't tell you what kind) and a lot of heat.  As for the palate it was very old world.  Very very dry, huge tannins very low sugars or any kind of perceived sweetness to it and extremely earthy.  A very robust wine to say the least.  It also had a considerable amount of alcohol to it too which didn't finish off to well for me.  All in all, not my favorite.

However, I decided to make an experiment of it and I left the bottle open and on the couch side table and came back to it the next day.  I wont tell you when because I may get a few disapproving glances but it was early(ish). Although not much better, all in all, some of the heat had dissipated and the tannins had calmed down a bit.  Still not much flavor though. It was still flat.

So now it's Sunday night.  I have left the bottle open and a glass poured of it since Saturday.  I had almost forgotten about it and was going to give up on it but I didn't and I am glad I didn't.  The difference is night and day and frankly so amazing to me that I had to write about it!  This is a completely different wine in so many ways.  The nose explodes with huge rich notes of plum and raisin and almost a dried cherry candy smell mixed with a delightful smoky/molassesy/vanilla!  It is so full, rich and smooth velvet comes to mind...liquid velvet.  This has now become one of those wines that I could just sniff all day and be completely happy (which, btw, really pisses off Derek and Marie when I do that...they yell at me and tell me to drink the damn thing and hurry up!)  There are some slight spices and an earthiness to it still but very subdued and I think adds a nice sub level to the fruity goodness.  The heat from the previous two days is nowhere to be found.  

On the palate, it is also a complete 180.  The fruits burst forward at the start and carry through to near the end.  There is still a bit of a tannic component leveling out the fruits.  It now has a measure of sweetness but is very much held in check.  Cherry starts to come through a bit more than any fruit flavor to me and there is a strange spice that kinda kicks up towards the end.  It has a nice full bodied feeling in the mouth but leaves very clean and almost disappears at the very end almost like water.  All in all an amazing transformation that I thought deserved mention!

An after-note:  I just poured the last little bit that was stored in the bottle into my glass expecting something like what had been sitting in my glass....nope it is not.  It is about halfway between when I first opened the bottle and what had been in the glass.  Tannic, lots of heat and still dry but the fruits and sugars were starting to come to the forefront.  Interestingly though there is a lot of spice to it.  Like it actually kinda burns much like spicy food does...weird

My suggestion: pick up a bottle decant it for 2-3 days then drink it.  Strange but it's worth a try!