What We Say 2005 Rebecca's Zinfandel
We spied this wine when on a covert mission to another Sonoma County winery. We showed up on bottling day and spotted a rugged, soil-of-the-vineyards looking guy loading boxes of wine into his aging cargo van. As we sidled in for a closer look at what this fellow was loading, we spied a wine label on the boxes that we have never seen before. Our dialog went a little something like this:
Agent Sparkle: “Whatcha got there?”
Guy loading boxes: “These are my wines. I just bottled them and I’m taking them to my cellar to age.”
Agent Sparkle: “I’m Agent Sparkle from the Wine Spies.”
Guy: “Agent Sparkle?! Cool name. I’m Jene Chapanar.”
Sparkle: “Hi Jene, can we introduce your wine to new wine drinkers?”
Jene: “Of course!”
That led to an introduction of Jene to Agent Red and an on-the-spot and in-the-parking lot tasting. Lucky for us, Jene had a bottle of this wonderful Zinfnadel.
Right out of the bottle, a deep sniff hit us with a woody, lemon zest and pepper. A quick sip had the intensity we have come to expect from most higher quality just-opened zins. Flavors of citrus, plum and black cherry with a mid-pallet smack of tannins were its first flavors. After a little swirling the flavors mellowed and became much more juicy and less harsh. This is a zin that likes to be drunk in bigger mouthfuls. Its color is a deep plum and it has a sweetness and smoothness that most zins leave our agents wanting.
All J. Cole wines are great red wines. Jene makes wines that are, so far, little-known and difficult to find so we are very happy to bring you this great and easy-drinking Zin. This wine is ready to drink right now, but will cellar for quite a few years for even better drinking. Be sure to buy at least one for now and one for your library.
Your mission, should you be lucky enough to get some before it sells out, is to drink this wine!
What the Winery Says
J. Cole Wines
Perry Perkins of Thirty Four North Wine Merchant says:
J. Cole Rebecca’s Vineyard Zinfandel is absolutely amazing and one of the great Zinfandels of that vintage. This wine boasts a dense ruby/purple color and a big, sweet nose of ground pepper, dried herbs, lavender, black cherry jam, raspberry, and licorice.
Full-bodied, powerful, and concentrated, this stunning Zinfandel should drink well for up to a decade. This wine comes from a six year old and 3/4 acre vineyard on Limerick Lane in California’s Russian River Valley. The vineyard only produced 1.2 tons or about 75 cases, brix was 26.3 and ph was a perfect 3.72. The yeast used was isolated from a rock pile zinfandel vineyard above Lake Sonoma.
The wine also won the Bronze Medal at the 2007 San Diego International Wine Competition.
