I’ve really liked this wine in the past and saw it for a good price recently and picked it up. I’m always intrigued by single vineyard Zins (though I don’t think these are particularly old vines). Let’s see what this vintage is like.

Producer: Kenwood Vineyards

Grapes: 100% Zinfandel

Appellation: Sonoma Valley

Vineyard: Jack London Vineyard (on Sonoma Mountain with southeasterly exposure, red volcanic soil)

Aging: 18 months in French and American oak

Alcohol: 14.5%

Price: I think I paid around $18

Production: 6,335 cases

My tasting notes:  Right off the bat I’m noticing that the color is rather thin for a Zin. Hmm. Not what I expected. On the nose, I get sweet pipe tobacco accenting the red fruit cherry/berry aromas. I’m smelling the alcohol a bit too, which is worrying. In the mouth it feels pretty plush, which isn’t what I expected after seeing the color. Flavors are red fruit, like in the nose, but with an appealing note of fruit skin — like cherry or plum, or even peach maybe. There is a meatiness coming through as well.

Score: All in all, I enjoyed this wine.  It took some time to open up — the second glass was much better than the first — but it came through in the end. Not a stop-the-presses value, but a nice bottle.  B/B-

Free association:  Amy Winehouse (thin and high in alcohol)

Packaging:  It’s a pretty cool-looking bottle. There is no paper label; the image and text is printed right on the bottle. The big wolf-head apparently was Jack London’s bookplate logo for many of his books, including the middle-school classic Call of the Wild. Also on the back there is a cool quote from Jack London writing about this very vineyard land in 1913:

“I ride over my beautiful ranch. Between my legs is a beautiful horse. The air is wine. The grapes on a score of rolling hills are red with autumn flame. Across Sonoma Mountain, wisps of sea fog are stealing. The afternoon sun smolders in the drowsy sky. I have everything to make me glad I am alive…”