Dolan heights

Paul Dolan 2007 Zinfandel (Mendocino County) – Zinfandel, yes. Yes it is. A little more acid, a little less coconut, more or less berryish. It’s…fine. (8/10)

Listen to this, Eddie

Graziano 2004 Zinfandel Eddie Graziano “Old Vine” (Mendocino) – 14.5%. While I suspect that, somewhere deep in the interior of this wine, there’s pleasant and approachable wild-vine, dark-berry fruit, it’s impossible to perceive through the hard screens and blockades of structure. I suspect that the grapes were just not up to being pushed towards such a serious destination. With the right (fatty) food, it’s a little better. (4/09)

Thank you, ano

Graziano 2004 Zinfandel (Mendocino) – 14.5%. Simple, clean, and direct; a burst of zingy fruit amongst tangled vines, with acidity that will remind one of the zins of yesteryear. Fun and gluggable. (8/08)

Summer lovin'

Copain 2005 Viognier “L’ete” (Mendocino County) – This is served to me blind, and after a brief flirtation with something white and Rhônish, I veer off in a completely wrong direction. But even if I’d stuck to my guns, I never would have guessed viognier, because there’s not much of it here. Dried flowers, perhaps, but none of the lurid, oily, aromatic explosion for which the grape is known. It’s hot and flabby, sure, and that is at least authentic, but there’s some acidity lingering about, and that can’t possibly be viognier, can it? Strange wine. Needs food. I can’t quite commit to liking it, but it’s at least interesting. (3/08)

It's me, Margaret

JB Cellars 2005 “Margaret Anne” Arneis/Tocai Friuliano (Mendocino) – Made by Marietta. It’s clean, pure fun, with intense sauvignon-like greenery (but on the ripe side) aromatized by a perfumed, almost lush top note of freshly-crushed lilies. Really, really nice. (8/07)

No reply Etoile

Domaine Chandon Brut Rosé “l’Etoile” (Mendocino/Napa/Sonoma) – Crown cap. Very fruity, with strawberries to the fore, and perhaps a little sweeter and more neon-intense than I’d like. But there’s yeasty complexity underneath, and the wine firms up a little bit on the finish…though eventually it turns every so slightly candied again. Still, not bad, though not worth the price either. (8/07)