Tryin' this sucker out with a TN
September 30th, 2009 | 
Author: OK, I really don’t know what I’m doing here, I think I’m posting, but have no idea where it will go or how it will be viewed. Whatever, I’ll go ahead and blather into the blogosphere anyway.
Came home late from work last night, with some new, high-end premade pasta sauces we sell in the store. I tried the Tuscan Vodka sauce, and of course I needed a nice Zin to go with it, and what better than a Mr. Ridge? My technique is just to go into the wine room, where most of my Ridge wines are all grouped together, and just grab one. I wound up with an older ATP bottling, the 2001 Del Carlo Zin from Dry Creek. 100% Zin, 14.3% alc. Given the moderate (for zin) alcohol, this was surprisingly ripe, verging on pruney, with some distinct raisiny notes to the fruit. The fruit lacks a bit of intensity in the middle, and the tannins are poking a bit on the finish. Surprisingly, this seems a bit dull and perhaps past it’s best, although PD’s note on the bottle (written in 2003) suggests the prime drinking window is 5 to 7 years. Draper’s usually conservative on his drinking windows, but I think he overshot a bit on this one, which seems like it has seen better days. Overall a rather lackluster and disappointing ATP from Ridge.
Posted in Bennett Traub
Very cool. We’re going to have a LOT of fun with this blog, my friend!
The pasta sauce was quite good actually. A brand called Scarpetta from a company called sauces ‘n love from Massachusetts, I believe. Very fresh tasting. Not cheap, though, at $7.99 for a 20oz. tub. I added it to some onions, garlic and ground buffalo meat. Linda freaked a bit when I told her my “meat sauce” was buffalo!
Maybe I was just in the mood for a brighter style of zin (which I thought I was getting with the lower alc), but I was a bit disappointed in the Del Carlo. Certainly not a bad wine, just kind of dull to me. Oh well, only one more bottle–next time I’ll try it with ribs or a grilled meat dish and see if that helps.
Hey Bennett, we tried this one in June and liked it better than you, so maybe there’s some bottle variation? My notes from then:
2001 Ridge Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel Del Carlo ATP, $25, 14.3% alc.: Clean dark color, with a reticent nose and not much of what you’d call “Draper perfume;” just pure “100%” Zinfandel black raspberry and blackberry character, rich, just ripe enough and somewhat earthy. Somewhat old school, not yet at its peak, but in a good place right now; in short, my kind of Zin. Shows none of the oak and cream that it did in August of ’05.
So, how was the pasta sauce? }8^)>
Cheers,
geo
Bennett – go to gangofpour.com/blogs to look around.