Posts
Summer! That wonderful time of year when the grass is green, the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, the pools are open, and of course, the grill is all fired up! God, I love summer! Which brings me to this entry, Bogle Old Vine Zinfandel. This little charmer will set you back a whole $8.99. I found this at your neighborhood Trader Joe's. Which I must say, their wine selection is not too bad.
Let's talk a bit about the wine. The grapes for this wine come from the Sacramento delta of California from old vines that are dry farmed and head trained so the vines produce small clusters of grapes with intense flavor and concentration. You will find notes of peppercorns and cranberries with spice upon the finish. This wine will pair well with grilled meats, heavy sauced pasta and one of my favorites, pizza.
Now that you know you should run out and buy this wine as fast as humanly possible, lets talk a little about what "old vines" and how they relate.
A common description on wine labels, indicates that a wine is the product of grape vines that are notably old. There is a general belief that older vines, when properly handled, will give a better wine. There is no legal or generally agreed definition for old. Now that's said, let's explore a little further.
Grape vines can grow for over 120 years. After about 20 years vines start to produce smaller yields, leading to more concentrated, intense wines. In the U.S., the most common use is Zinfandel, because in California vineyards up to 125 years old are still bearing small amounts of prized Zinfandel fruit.
In a place where wine production is longstanding, it often means a wine whose vines are thirty to forty years old. Some wine makers insist the vines should be older than this. In newly established wine regions, twenty years might be old. The definition is further complicated by the fact that certain varieties simply do not have economically viable yields when they get truly ancient. The oldest known grape-producing vine is a Žametovka vine growing in Maribor in Slovenia, which is known to have been alive in the 17th century; it produces a token of about 35 to 55 kg grapes each year, which is fermented and put into about 100 miniature bottles.
