One of the finest Zins I have ever tasted
Adventures Of A Black Belt Sommelier
Tasting 2019 Once And Future Wines Zinfandel Teldeschi Vineyard Frank's Block
It comes from that vineyard behind me, the Teldeski Vineyard. It's called Once in Future Wines. The wineries, Once in Future Wines. It's the Teldeski Vineyard, Frank's Block, Zinfandel, 2019. Once in Future Wines is the new, well, it's not all that new, but it's the newish project of Joel Peterson. Now, I will warn you that Joel's a pretty good friend of mine, so I may be slightly biased about this one, but I don't need to be because it's extraordinary. Joel was famous as the owner of Ravenswood back in the day when they made it. He made a million cases as Infandelier, mostly the vendor's blend. It was about $10 back then, and it was an absolutely fantastic $10 wine. Now, he sold Ravenswood to Gallo, I think he sold it to Constellation Brands, and Constellation Brands sold it to Gallo, and now Gallo and Constellation Brands are in some kind of litigation over it, so it kind of doesn't exist at the moment because nobody can figure out who owns it. But he has started a new project called Once in Future Wines, and by the way, his son, Morgan Twain Peterson, has also has a winery that kind of sources the same vineyards. It's called Bedrock, and they're interesting that Father and Son, they both make Zinfandel, most predominantly Zinfandel, from these old storied single vineyard plots in mostly in Sonoma, Alexander Valley. So this is an extraordinary wine. Now, it's five years old, so it is, I would say, really, and a really beautiful sweet spot for this wine. Tildeschi is one of the historically great vineyards in California for Zinfandel. This wine comes from a small part of the Tildeschi vineyard called Frank's Plot, which is even better. It is, well, it's just such a wonderful wine. It's rich and voluptuous and full-bodied and dry and powerful and has loads and loads of blue fruits and red fruits and black fruits. It has a bouquet of Greek, which is normally associated with wines from Sonoma. You normally associate bouquet of Greek with wines from the Southern Rome Valley, but it has that. It's really, really rich and weighty on the palate. The tannins are pretty much completely resolved at this point, so it's almost like red velvet in your mouth, not the dye, not the dye red velvet. So it's up there in the pantheon of great Zinfadils that are in the market today. I'd say the only, well, there's two other wineries that make Zinfandel at this level. There's Ridge, and then there's his son, Morgan, with bedrock and then turley sellers. They're easily the four extraordinary producers of the Mandel, and this one, it rates right up there with any of the wines that Turley makes or Ridge makes or Morgan, his son makes. It is absolutely just everything you would want Zinfandel to be. I'm having some baby back ribs of the dry rub tonight, and I'm going to have a glass of this with it, and that's going to be really, really match made in heaven. You should look for it. It's special. There's not a lot of it. It only made like 450 cases, so there's not a lot of it, and it's not inexpensive for Zinfadils. It'll be about $50, but you can spend a whole lot more than $50 and not get as great a bottle of wine. I'm lucky. I found it for $11, so I found a case of it in a store that had mispriced it. I bought a case, and they gave me 10% off, so I bought it for $10.70 a bottle, and it is, no question, it's the best $10.70 bottle of wine I've ever dropped in my life, and not just because I know it's a $50 bottle of wine, but because of the kind of wine it is, it's really, really special. It's worth looking for. It's worth buying. Paul Draper at Ridge, he has this idea that Zinfandel should be drunk by the time it's seven years old, and it's hard to argue with Paul, but I do disagree with him. I think I've tasted Zinfadils that are much older than that, that were still wonderful, wonderful wines. Joel says he has zen from 2030, just about years old, that are still extraordinary. I will also say, and he's just the greatest guy ever, and such a good friend, and I'll say, if you are so inclined, you might keep him in your prayers right now, because he's battling for some pretty serious health problems. I've lost too many friends the last few years. I don't want to lose Joel. It's part of what happens when you get to be 72 years old. It seems like somebody that you care about dies way too often. 2019, once in future wines, Daldeschi vineyard, Frank's block, Zinfandel, absolutely extraordinary. I don't know that I've really ever tasted Zinfandel that I would say was better. I've tasted others that are great, but this is up there with any of them. Thanks for tuning into Adventures of Black Balsalier. I hope you had a great weekend. I sure did.