2021 Turley Juveniles

[Nicklasss]

Last night, at a friend birthday party, brought a bottle of the 2021 Turley Cuvée Juveniles.

This is a nice young zinfandel, with a medium red color, nice nose of dark cherries, lot of zinberries, light chocolate, nice integrated oak and orange scars. Mouth is well balanced, with great attack on fruits, good concentration, light dark chocolate cake with cherries, somethong like spices, power ginger and a decent final on fruits and great acidity and freshness. One of the "easiest" 15.2 % alcohol wine to drink. Excellent. Tn : 90.

When i compare Turley and Ridge, Turley is more in the style of traditionnal zinfandel wine, but very enjoyable with no heaviness or heat. Ridge zinfandel wines have more blackfruits, tannins, length and finesse, but i consider them a bit untraditionnal zin.

[jckba]

That’s interesting as I would categorize them in exactly the opposite way.

I find Turley wines enjoyable in their youth as they are high octane, ripe, juicy black fruited and peppery nuanced that can pair well with BBQ. The several times I have aged them I have ended up with pruney / raisany messes where the alcohol was poking through in an unpleasant way so I stopped doing it.

[Nicklasss]

I agree jckba.

I just realized that when i used the word "traditionnal", it is probably not the right word, as when describing "traditionnal" Bordeaux, meaning classic, slightly austere, can age well. This is what i think about Ridge wines.

For Turley, i agree with you, better in their first 5 years, as they offer a lot of "genuine" zin wine characters, lush, concentrated fruit but acidic at the same time, something exotic, and very drinkable for the alcohol level.

[Jay Winton]

We had a 99 Turley Pringle for Thanksgiving brought by a guest. I thought it a bit subdued but quaffable. The 05 La Lagune was much preferred.

[DavidG]

That’s interesting as I would categorize them in exactly the opposite way.

I find Turley wines enjoyable in their youth as they are high octane, ripe, juicy black fruited and peppery nuanced that can pair well with BBQ. The several times I have aged them I have ended up with pruney / raisany messes where the alcohol was poking through in an unpleasant way so I stopped doing it.

That was my experience with aging them as well, and I stopped buying in the mid-late 1990s. I've heard that they've dialed it back a lot since then. Are more recent vintages still aging poorly?

[RPCV]

I agree on the opposite position as well. Turley and Martinelli are just too high alcohol for me. Ridge is balanced and ages quite well.

[jckba]

I stopped buying and holding so I wouldn’t be the one to ask about this.

I did taste through some of the Martinelli lineup (chards, pinots and zins) several months ago with the brand rep and my Skurnik rep and those wines are still heavy handed in nature so if you have an aversion to oak, I would tell you to steer clear.