Wine Tasting: Trentadue 34 Old Patch Red Lot 36

Name:  Trentadue Old Patch Red Lot 36
Variety: 85% Zinfandel,  15% Petite Sirah

Region: California

Country: United States
Year: 2011
Price: $15

Shop review: The Old Patch Red Lot #36 is a blend of 85% Zinfandel and 15% Petite Sirah. This one is fruity, juicy and bursting with wild raspberry sweetness. A brambly, underbrush earthiness cuts through the sweet fruit to produce a wine with a bit more character. Not as one-note as the price would suggest. Good Juice!

My review:  This was the first wine I ever bought from the Vintage Cellar, back when we went to the Saturday wine tastings because the wine class Thursday tastings didn't exist yet. Prior to this, the most expensive wine I had ever bought was a seven dollar bottle of sparkling Barefoot Refresh. It really blew me away how rich and bold the wine was, because I had never had anything like it. It instantly became one of my all time favorites, but every week I tried a new wine, and my tastes became more refined. Fast forward to the end of the semester, after almost completing the wine class and learning a lot about wine and my palette. Even after tasting so many other wines, some three of four times more expensive, this is still the best wine I've ever had. It is an intensely dark, red black color, which I now know means that there is a good chance that it is bold and tannic, and bold and tannic it is, although it has a very round taste with lots of fruit. I get dark cherry, plum, pepper, some oak, and a good amount of bell pepper on the nose and to taste. This wine also has a long, jammy finish to it. The first time I had this was with spinach and mushroom tortellini, and the second time with steak fajitas. Both times, it paired excellently with the food. I look forward to seeing their 2012 Vintage, which is supposed to be an even better year than 2011 in California.