Amador Syrah

Scott Harvey has been making wine in Amador county for a long time. At one time he was a winemaker at Renwood and had access to some of the oldest vines in the country. Scott knows how to coax bold flavors out of Zin vines so I figured that this 2008 Amador county mountain selection Syrah would be in the style of his Zins. This was the case as the extracted concentrated flavors were impressive. If you like the style  , this is a wine for you. $ 15.99 at Shopper's corner-8 1/2 swiggs.

Nice weekend Zin

I read a review of some Sonoma Zins in the S.F. Chronicle the other day and saw one of the wines at the local market. At $ 23.99, this 2009 Hobo Rockpile Brennan vineyard  Zin is at the upper end of what I pay for a wine but it comes through with some big flavors. The tannins are up there as well, suggesting that hanging onto this one for a few years won't hurt it. -Of course, we drank it immediately with dinner. It's one of the better wines of its type and well worth the price. 9 swiggs.

Italo-California wine.

There aren't many Montepulciano's from California....as a matter of fact , this might be the first one I have had. I find it to be more like an old world wine, not overly sweet or concetrated-drier and more of a food-wine. Unti makes Zin, Syrah , grenache and Petit Sirah in addition to this 2008 Dry Creek valley Montepulciano but this one really stands out as an homage to the dry red wines of Italy. This is not a fruit bomb but a nice wine to have with dinner. It is fine on its own but it really shines when the pasta is on the table. You can find it at the winery and at a few upper-end wine shops like K&L. At  around $ 25, I regard this as a weekend wine and give it 8 swiggs.

Near perfection from Ridge

Lots of people make terrific Zinfandel in California from all sorts of locations but to me, one label stands out as the one I measure all the others by. Ridge has a long history of finding great fruit from all over the state to make their wines , particularly the Zin blends. this 2007 York Creek is really about as good as it gets. The wine is not all Zin as there's some Petit Sirah and a couple others that add depth and complexity. We did not finish the bottle with our dinner at a local restaurant and brought it home. The next night the wine was even better than the night before. I'm not sure the '07 is still available but it is worth looking for. The price I have seen is $ 26.95 so it is definitely a weekend and special occasion wine. 9 1/2 swiggs.

Weekday Merlot bargain

At the risk of shooting myself in the foot and giving everyone a chance to scoop up this wine before I can by some. This Buena Vista Carneros 2006 Merlot speaks of Sonoma. The nice earthy dry flavors were really great with the lunch I had today and for the price of $ 8.99 I feel this is one I'll want to stock up on. Trader Joe's has this and I'll bet that they didn't get a lot of it. I'm getting mine tomorrow....are you ? If so, I hope I get there before you ! 7 swiggs.

Washington Cabernet

A certain wine publication trumpeted this wine as a real great deal and gave it a high rating. I have thought that Columbia Crest wines were occasionally good for the money so I plunked down the $ 9.95 at Trader Joes for this 2009 Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet to try it out. At first I was underwhelmed....it was kind of uninteresting and run of the mill tasting. Since we were having dinner we were stuck with this bottle for the duration of the meal but fortunately the wine began to change and get some nice flavors coming through. I may have been put off at first and I have definitely had better wines at the price but I'll say that it isn't bad if you give it a chance. I'll give it 5 1/2 swiggs.

One of the 2006 wines that is still available

I do review a lot of Storr's wines as they are a local producer and we get a quarterly shipment as we are members of their wine club. It's a good thing as we regard these wines as among the best in the new world.....I'm not kidding ! This 2006 St. Clare is a Bordeaux style blend , complex and satisfying in a big way. This wine is drinking perfectly now. It is $ 19.95 at Shopper's corner while they still have it. 9 swiggs.