2004 Bradford Mountain Winery Zinfandel
Mission Codename: Grist for the mill
Operative: Agent Red
Objective: Rove the hills and valleys of the Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County, recover an outstanding Zinfandel for our Operatives
Mission Status: Accomplished!
Current Winery: Bradford Mountain Winery
Wine Subject: Grist Vineyard 2005 Zinfandel
Winemakers: Troy McEnery (winemaker) and Webster Marquez (associate winemaker)
Backgrounder: Zinfandel wines can be big, noisy, pepper-filled beasts of a wine. Today we have sleuthed for you one of our all time favorite Zinfandels, Bradford Mountain’s incredible Grist Vineyard Zinfandel, a wine of remarkably fresh flavors and aromas that, together with a great mouth feel and balanced character, delivering a wine drinking experience that is not to be missed. Read Agent Red’s tasting notes and mission report below to learn more about this wine. Be sure to place your order before we run out, however, we expect this wine to move fast
Wine Spies Tasting Profile:
Look – Deep dark, almost blood red, but but perfectly clear with deeply concentrated color right out to the edges of the wine and chubby, slow-moving legs that run down the glass at varying speeds
Smell – Gorgeous is the best single-word description we can assign to the beautiful aromatics of this wine! With smells of fresh mixed wild berries, chocolate tart with plum and mint, sweet pipe tobacco, with a fresh green smell that we can’t quite identify. Its not a vegital smell, nor is it an herbaceous aroma. Rather, it just smells like green, and we love it. Inhale deeply and you’ll see what we mean!
Feel – Instantly rich and round in your mouth, with a bright and full-bodied feel. The wine coats your mouth, but does not feel slick, oily or cloying. What you find here is a tenderness and a brightness that is balanced against supple tannins, rich and lean, bold and lavish, yet fun and refined.
Taste – Rich and brightly concentrated with intense sweet flavors of freshest mixed berries, sweet herbs, softest tar, soft exotic spices and a hint of dark chocolate and a hint of mint
Finish – Sweet and extremely long with a slight dryness that invigorates your senses and invites you to keep on sipping!
Conclusion – This is an incredible Zinfandel with unique fresh and bright flavors of fruit, with a bright rush of perfect aromas that encourage you to inhale deeply -again and again – before you even taste the wine. When you tire of teasing yourself with inhalations, the feel and flavors of this wine sing out as deeply original and incredibly delicious. This wine gets my heartiest personal recommendation to any Zinfandel fan or any interested in learning just how awesome a Zin can be.
Mission Report:
*:: FLASH TRAFFIC :: PRIORITY ALPHA ! :: EYES ONLY ::
SUPERIOR WINE ALERT ISSUED: Midnight, July 2nd, 2008
WINE SPIES AGENT: Agent Red
INTEL SOURCE: Field Asset, Codename: ‘Crljenak’
AGENT RED REPORTING:
Crljenak, a developing field asset, alerted me to Bradford Mountain Winery and their 2004 Grist Vineyard’s Zinfandel just one week ago. It was Crljenak’s first field report that got my attention:
“Sir, Crljenak reporting! I have located the perfect Zinfandel. You must secure a quantity of the wine before word of its greatness spreads – and the winery runs out! You won’t be disappointed.”
Details about the wine followed.
While I am used to somewhat fanatical recommendations from our various assets, this one struck as as one to assign a high priority to. You see, “Crljenak” is a top-level industry insider. While I cannot reveal his or her true identity, I can tell you that a review from this person can make a wine – or destroy it.
I secured samples of the wine and was, indeed, blown away. Today’s wine delivers the goods, with a perfectly balanced mix of delicious flavors, tender feel, deeps aromas and marvelous finish.
Both winemakers associated with this wine are stars in the industry, Troy McEnery having crafted remarkable wines for Hambrecht Vineyards, C. Donatiello Winery and others – and Webster “Web” Marquez is making waves with his own projects. Both, however are dedicated to extracting the fullest expression of the Grist Vineyard when making Bradford Mountain’s Zinfandel.
After conducting my initial review of the wine, I quickly sought out winemaker Troy McEnery. During a brief phone call, Troy imparted a great deal of information about the wine and the vineyards. What follows are portions of his comments, extracted and transcribed for this report:
“The Grist Vineyard is recognized as a premium Zinfandel vineyard. The grapes grown there are highly sought after and wineries like Gary Farrell Winery, Turley Wine Cellars and others purchase Grist grapes for their premium wines.”
“The vineyards are head-trained, trellis vines that are 35 to 45 years old. The 1000’ elevation, the iron-rich volcanic soil and the West Dry Creek Valley exposure all contribute to growing outstanding Zinfandel grapes.”
“This wine has a really juicy wild-berry ripeness with excellent acidity.”
“I don’t understand what some Zinfandels are even for? Zinfandel can be seen as the ‘Mike Tyson’ of wine varietals, but this is This is no ‘clown’ of a Zinfandel. This is a fun wine, sure, but its also a sincere wine that stands on its own, or can pair without food – without overpowering you.”
After tasting the wine, loving it and then collecting all of the intel that I could on the wine, I infiltrated the winery and secured today’s limited allocation for our Operatives to enjoy. Be SURE to try this great wine, before we run out.
Wine Spies Vineyard Check:
The location of the gorgeous Grist Vineyard can be seen in this satellite photo.
