Turley Zinfandel Old Vines California 2003

Today is Stephanie's birthday, so I prepared a mildly special dinner - grilled doublecut pork chops with a roasted red pepper sauce and orzo with grilled zucchini, onions, eggplant, and bell pepper. These were specially raised pork chops, with considerably more fat than the grocery store brand. They were succulent. I also purchased a special wine - the normally exorbitantly priced Turley Zin, which I found for a relative bargain.

I wanted a reasonably well-extracted wine to balance the heat and sweetness in the sauce, and I got at least that from the Turley. This is, of course, the California zinfandel, and it showed its roots. At 16.4% alcohol, we could barely hold on the for the ride. The wine was intensely ripe and had almost no tannin or acidity, but it did have some interesting complexity. A wine this big is hard to describe - suffice it to say that there were characteristic zinfandel notes of blueberry and spice. Frankly, it drank like dry port - which is not entirely a bad thing, if that's what you're after. While it shows none of the potential for aging that fine port does, it would certainly be a fine match for a cigar.