In what now seems almost like a previous life, I managed the wine department in a high-end food market here in Greater Day-twah some years ago. Distributor reps would regularly stop in with winemakers, winery owners and other in-the-biz types who were on the road selling their wares. On one such occasion, I had the opportunity to meet and taste with Lori Felten, who, with her husband Steve, owns Klinker Brick Winery in Lodi, California. I remember Mrs. Felton as being a refreshing change from some of my other visitors; rather than being one of the glamourous Sonapanoma-types who start or buy a winery and hire others to work and manage their business or the corporate career suits who would often spout their pitch by rote in a somewhat disinterested manner, she was quite obviously a farmer, and I mean that in the kindest possible way. The Felten family has been farming their property for 5 generations, and she was down-to-earth and completely without pretense of any kind.

I enjoyed tasting with Mrs. Felton that day, and I enjoyed the wines we tasted. In the following several years, I sold more than a little of their Old Vine Zinfandel, which garnered a devoted flock of admirers. I’ve been out of retail for a while now, so I hadn’t had the opportunity to try one again until just a few weeks ago. I was strolling through my friendly neighborhood Costco, and I noticed a bin-full of the current vintage at a price that was too good to pass up. Here’s what I found in the bottle.

2014 Klinker Brick Old Vine Zinfandel Lodi, 15.8% alc., $13.99: Clean and dark in color; the “zinberry” nose is a little stingy at first, but this is tons more generous on the palate, with big, rich, ripe and earthy black raspberry and black cherry flavors. Full bodied, but not too heavy, with very good structure (the acids are as prominent as the tannins) for at least 3-5 years in the cellar and nice length on the finish. We’ve drifted away from ripe wine styles for the most part, but we like the way this one offsets the fruit forward character with those earthier elements. It’s an excellent BBQ wine, but we don’t do much of that around here, so we’ll opt for things like burgers (either lamb or beef), pizza or even some moderately spicy Asian fusion. We’ve had 4 or 5 of these already; we have 3 more in the cellar, and with such great QPR (quality-price-ratio; this costs $19.99 at the winery), you can bet that we’ll be picking up more so that we don’t run out when Chef Kerr aka Canadian Zinfan pays another visit. At this price, we can really stock up. Find this wine

Reporting from Day-twah,

Bastardo

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