SMOKING LOON- 2005 ZINFANDEL- $5.99 with Vons card

I am a fan of the Smoking Loon label art. It is smart and stylish, reminiscent of wood print etchings that could have come from ancient Persia or Greece- or simply that fictitious land where my fantasies of wine's mythic origins come to life and I can forget that I bought this mass produced juice at Vons for $5.99.

The wine has a nice ruby red color and welcoming aromas of dried fruit, toasted vanilla spice (probably from woodchips) and lingering red fruits.The taste is big, bold, and sweet with ripe cherries and a persistent but not overpowering black pepper note. There are good balanced tannins, a nice rounded finish, with lively acidity. For $5.99 the wine really tastes good- certainly on the sweet side- but the finish doesn't let you down and the acidity would pair well with red meat and hearty pasta dishes.

*15 minutes later- "This wine is too sweet and syrupy..."

A wise man once told me that the last glass of a truly great wine is as good or better than the first. Are there truly great wines for under $15 - ABSOLUTELY! I think.... And I will find them... Very often a wine like this Zin will hook you with those first few sips because of their high sugar content, but after that first glass they will often be too sweet and syrupy.

This wine suffered from that by the end of the second glass, but a bowl of Bolognese may have helped the problem. I was eating wheat thins...

The wine uses select grapes from the Central Coast of the great state of California- Paso Robles, Mendocino, Monterey, Clarksburg, and Lodi.

Smoking Loon is a label of "3 Loose Screws"- a division of Don Sebastiani and Sons. This is a company I am interested in as they source grapes from around the world, bottle them, and market them within the American Table Wine price range I am interested in. They have a very cool, informative, and user friendly website with lots of details. They also have some pretty smart looking labels and clever names for their wines.

They claim to be the "Next Generation In Wine".
http://www.donandsons.com/threeloosescrews/

In a future blog I will breakdown the various types of wine characterizations... From fictional places and celebrities to animals and novelty concepts....

Here is how 3 Loose Screws describe their Smoking Loon 2005 Zin on their website:

"This Zinfandel has rich purple color with aromas of fresh figs, dark cherries, and subtle rosemary notes. Rich and structured, our Zinfandel has dark chocolate, espresso, wild game, and dried cherry finishing with blackberry compote and integrated French oak."

HAAS NOTES: Didn't catch that rosemary- but like the idea of it. I love "wild game" as an aroma and will be on the lookout for it from now on... I agree about the "dark chocolate"... I am sorry I missed that... "Blackberry compote"... is a very cool description worth borrowing.., "Integrated French oak" probably means woodchips are sprinkled on top, as it ages in stainless steel vats. For the price it is hard to believe that this wine spent any time in a barrel... But I could be wrong...

I am new to this and learning every day... Thanks for reading...

-Kurt