And a very round-a-bout way to get a bottle of wine back to Virginia. I picked this bottle up on my work trip in New Orleans. One of my coworkers and I were going to celebrate my birthday a little more, but after gorging ourselves at the RedFish Grill on Bourban Street we simply couldn't fit even a drop in our stomachs. So the bottle got stashed in my suitcase to be checked through on the plane. And thus arrived this $13.99 bottle of 2004 Sonoma County Ravenswood Zinfandel.On the nose I found blackberries, oak, spices, and alcohol. I'm not sure this bottle was ready to drink. The alcohol needed quite a bit of time to blow off the aroma of the wine. In the mouth I would describe the wine as hot. After some time I found blackberries, black currants, and oak. Comparatively, this was a low alcohol Zinfandel, coming in at only 14.5%. So I'm not sure where all the heat on this one came from, but boy was it there. Wait to drink it or decant it.
I served this with four cheese ravioli and fresh tomato sauce. I was in a cooking mood the other day and made us our fall's supply of tomato sauce! It was actually a really good match for the acid of the tomato sauce.
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The restriction on carrying wine/bottles in hand-luggage has been such a pain. Now, I can no longer buy at duty-free shopping everywhere, and also worry that the bottles (and my clothes) survive through the long journey home when I put them in check-in luggage.
8/20/07, 11:09 AM
In light of this post, I thought this article regarding high alcohol wines might interest you and the rest of the crowd.
http://wineabout.pressdemocrat.com/default.asp?item=656105
Btw, that's strong work, hand-carrying back the county series zin. Love it. Keep up the enthusiasm.
8/20/07, 6:41 PM
Following the advice of some wine guy whose name escapes me, I often put my Ravenswood Zin in the fridge for 15 minutes to "take the heat off." It works.
8/21/07, 9:23 PM
Yikes - this was one of my upcoming posts! It was supposed to be enjoyed with the two Zins I had last week, but I couldn't get the courage to open THREE bottles...
8/22/07, 9:58 PM
Shantanu-Yes, the restrictions do make it very difficult to bring home wine anymore. And whenever I check it, I spend the whole flight worrying about whether it will still be intact upon arrival!
GP-Thanks for pointing me to the article! A good read.
EB-I do stick my red wines in the fridge for about 20 minutes before we drink them as a matter of course. For this one, it just didn't seem to help.
Don't want to discourage you Joe!!! Maybe you'll have better luck than I did!
8/23/07, 7:16 AM