Wannabe Wino Wine Blog

*Disclaimer: I received these wines as a sample from Bradford Mountain Winery

Following up on the tasting of the Bradford Mountain Syrah vertical, we held another dinner party to taste the Bradford Mountain Dry Creek Vally Zinfandel Veritcal.  We still have one ore vertical of Bradford Mountain Zinfandel left to taste, but I think that will have to wait until after we get back from our CA sojurn this week!  This time I served the Zins with my *famous* BBQ beef ribs, tortellini/tomato/basil salad, and fruit salad.  The Zins matched nicely with the BBQ, always one of my favorite pairings! We tasted the 2004, 2005, and 2006 Bradford Mountain Dry Creek Valley Zins…I must say, Bradford Mountain is on a learning curve with the oak, 2006 got it oh so right, so I would expect even better things from them in the future!

2004 Dry Creek Valley Bradford Mountain Zinfandel: 14.8% alcohol by volume. Molasses, cranberry, wood, oak, berries, vanilla, cream, more wood, red berries, more oak, red currants.

2005 Dry Creek Valley Bradford Mountain Zinfandel: 14.6% alcohol by volume.  Pepper, cinnamon, cracked black pepper, berries, currants, spice, candy, syrup, wood, oak, nice fruit underneath the wood, less wood than the 200, but still a bit heavy handed with the oak.

2006 Dry Creek Valley Bradford Mountain Zinfandel: 14.5% alcohol by volume.  Cranberry, pomegrante, cinnamon, pie, molasses, crumble, red fruit, red currants, pepper, red berries, tart fruit, got this one very right.

The Bradford Mountain bottles actually provide some great info on the back label including harvest date, bottling date, and oak program.  The differences here are interesting.  The 2004 saw 14 months in barrel, American and European Oak, 40% new oak.  The 2005 saw 14 months in barrel, American, French, and European Oak, 40% new oak.  The 2006 saw 14 months in barrel, only French Oak, and only 30% new oak.  Now, in my very humble opinion, this seems to be the best treatment, the 2006, of the 3, though I think maybe even a little less new oak might do the trick!

Filed under: California, Red, Wine, Zinfandel |