If you are visiting us for the first time, Welcome! The Wine Spies feature one exceptional wine each day – and we only bring you wines that we ourselves seek out and love. Always, the wines are great. Sometimes even better than that, as is the case with today’s wine from Bourassa Vineyards.

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Mission Codename: Agent White Under Investigation

Operative: Agent Red

Objective: Verify Agent White’s Love of Bourassa’s Wines

Mission Status: Accomplished!

Current Winery: Bourassa Vineyards

Wine Subject: 2005 Napa Valley Zinfandel

Winemaker: Gary Galleron

Backgrounder:

California is famous for its big rich and dark Zins. Most people don’t know that the Zinfandel varietal is genetically directly related to the Southern Italian Primitivo grape. Immensely popular, Zinfandel is California’s most widely harvested red varietal. Wines made from the Zinfandel grape have a wide range of flavors and usually have a distinctly spicy nose and pepper flavors. It also generally ages very well.

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Ruby red in color with pink edges, luminescent highlights and surprising excellent clarity. Slow thick legs give an indication of the intensity and concentration of flavors.

Smell – Medium to bold intensity fresh ripe fruit flavors of blackberries and cherries, a spicy hint of pepper and balanced oak that evolves to a vanilla and caramel component as it opens up.

Feel – Medium bodied with bright acidity and dry in texture with firm tannins that coat the entire tongue.

Taste – Tart wild blackberries, oak and pepper are nicely balanced on this very drinkable and fresher Zin. A slightly herbaceous quality emerges as it breathes adding to the overall complexity of this wine.

Finish – Long and lingering with flavors of tart fruit, oak and spicy pepper.

Conclusion – This wine is a very drinkable wine (the perfect kind of wine) and is much more bright, youthful and fresh than your typical Zinfandel. Zin fans will find mush to like about this wine, and people who find most California Zins too big and spicy will love the nicely balanced and complex flavors of this wine that are not dominated by spicy pepper.

Mission Report:

Agent Red reporting in – transcript as follows:

Ops was concerned… White had been taking the spy plane down to Mexico, not reported in for days at a time and always came back with great wines from Napa Valley’s Bourassa Vineyards. Questions lingered, and even worse Agent Blush was getting suspicious.

I was dispatched to Napa to investigate. I hate these missions, as being a fellow field agent, I know what’s involved in finding great wines. Nobody wants to be second guessed, and we are fighting on the same team against the O.D.S.W. (our arch nemesis Only Drink Supermarket Wines). I had no reason to doubt White’s allegiance – I personally knew of many of the unsung battles we’ve won against O.D.S.W. He was on the front lines, and I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have there.

Recently White had returned with a cache of great wines from several Napa Valley wineries, and in particular he was raving about some of the latest Zins, Syrahs and blends. Upon my arrival at the winery, I was greeted by our internal asset ‘E’ who quickly pulled me aside and out of the tasting room. He assured me that all was on the up-and-up and said the best way to prove it was to taste the wines.

After doing some barrel tastings and trying the entire flight my fears where allayed, the wine was indeed great, and ‘E’ had said that him and White were simply enjoying some much needed R&R while trying some wine (and tequila). I was most taken by the Zin that ‘E’ had poured. The 2005 Bourassa Vineyards Napa Valley Zinfandel just delicious. Fresh, young, balanced fruit, oak, spice but not overpowering. Its a very ‘drinkable’ wine – and that’s the best kind…

Wine Spies Vineyard Check:

The location of Bourassa Vineyards can be seen in this satellite photo.