Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

Many years ago, I used to drink a lot of zin, mostly while waiting for my cabs, Bdx and Rhones to mature. Enjoyed a lot of them, Ridge, Ravenswood, Rosenblum, Lytton Springs (yes that long ago before they were Ridge), Dashe, Rafanelli and even got into some of the bigger ones like Martinelli and Turley. But they fell by the wayside as my other wines matured and I became less enamored of the big, jammy alcoholic style.

I'd heard a lot of good things about Carlisle, and a friend offered a few bottles from his latest allocation. I popped and poured the 2011 Dry Creek Valley a couple of nights ago and found it really fresh and balanced, despite an alcohol level in the 15% range. Not at all jammy or over-ripe. But still offering the berry, spicy stuff I remember really liking about zin. Is this typical of the vintage, this particular bottling, or Carlisle in general?

I'm a very big Carlisle fan, have been on their mailing list going on something like 6-7 years. Mike's zins are often a little bigger/riper than Ridge's (which I also love) but definitely less ripe/jammy than Turley or Martinelli. I've also had good luck aging Carlisle -- had a 2002 syrah the other day that was strikingly fresh and young, tasted like it could easily go another 10 years before reaching maturity. Very reasonably priced, too (at least on the mailing list) -- Carlisle's the best high-end CA zin/syrah producer from a qpr perspective in my opinion. One of my favorite mailing lists.

David, I like Carlisle even more when age tones it down a bit. The fruit holds up well.