Sunday, October 14, 2007

ZD 2005 Carneros Pinot Noir


I am finally back after having had family in town for the two last weeks with a lot of traveling (and no blogging). Thank you for being patient...

Tonight we opened the ZD 2005 Carneros Pinot Noir with dinner. It is made from fruit sourced from two vineyards in Carneros. After crush it was fermented in small open top fermenters with hand punchdowns every six hours, then aged for 10 months in French Oak barrels.

This wine shows a dark ruby red, clear color in the glass. The nose is lush but still elegant with ripe red cherry, rose, vanilla and a slight hint of thyme. In the mouth it expresses red cherry, dark raspberry, dust and smokey oak. The tannins are soft in this medium bodied wine with a moderate finish, that could use a little bit more punch.
At first I was slightly disappointed at the very restrained fruit but as I let it open up about 30 min the more lush, ripe berries emerged and made this elegant wine quite enjoyable. After an additional 30 min it was even more fruit forward and round. I strongly recommend to let this bottle sit open for about 1 hour (or decant it) before enjoying, as it only opens up and develops to the better.

You can find it at Wine-Searcher.com from $29.99 which I would say is a fair price for this level quality bottle.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I would like to exchange links with your site www.blogger.com
Is this possible?