Emery Davis wrote:
]
> ] I concur on these selections, especially the Biale. I've been nursing my
> ] allocation of the Black Chicken, Aldo's, and Grande sv's, and recently tasted
> ] the Spinker and Dogtown Flats [?] from the '02. All excellent.
> ]
> ] The idea of finding the terroir in Zins is a great one. I attended a tasting
> ] some years back with just that theme and it was an "eye-opener" for me, at
> ] least.
> ]
>
> Hunt, Mark -
>
> I like the terroir idea a lot too. Say I go with Ed's Renwood from Amador,
> and a Biale -- because I don't know them at all. Although Black Chicken
> and Dogtown Flats have a certain romantic quality, I hate to choose based
> on name alone. Can you clue me in to what might be the tariest, spiciest,
> pipe tobacco-iest, blackest fruit of the bunch? (In short, to make the
> french audience say: Wot the Fo*?) Without, mind you, being
> contraversial!

Emery,
To do the terroir thang, you'll probably want to stick to a single
vintage, of which 2002 will give you the most options. Re Biale's
wines, they are hard enough to score that I'd just grab whichever I
could find. In an ideal world, I'd probably choose the Aldo's or Black
Chicken, but that's just me. Now, about the tarry, spicy, black idea:
that's what you'll get with an Amador Zin, but a top Sonoma Zin such as
Biale has will typically show more tart raspberry and pepper, which is
after all the point of a terroir tasting, no?

>
> Funny, of the "majors" in Mark's list Biale is the one I really have no
> experience with.

Biale isn't a major in the sense of a Ridge or Ravenswood: his
production isn't even a tenth of theirs, I'd wager. I included him in
my "usual suspects" because along with the 3 Rs his wines are about as
reliable as they get, year in and year out being tasty, ultra-correct
Zins. I didn't include Renwood in the list because my experiences with
them have been more spotty, but Ed's vouching for them in '02 is a good
guarantee. Other good Amador producers are Karly (esp. "Warrior Fires")
and Easton (run by Bill Easton, who started Solano Cellars way back
when). Renwood has far larger production, however, and is easier to
find. The Grandpere vineyard got its name because it has the oldest
documented vines in CA (1856 or something like that), but Scott Harvey
of Folie A Deux owns the vineyard, so Renwood's Grandpere is from
another source now.

Good luck, and post notes when you open them! ;-)

Mark Lipton