Ridge Geyserville 2005

Stephanie had a stressful week at work, so I tried to help her take the edge off with an excellent meal and a nice bottle of wine. The meal included braised country-style pork ribs in natural jus, potatoes sauteed in goose fat, and green beans. The wine was one of my favorite American bottlings, Ridge's Geyserville zinfandel blend.

The 2005 vintage celebrates the wine's 40th anniversary, indicating just how long Paul Draper has been exploring zinfandel's possibilities. The zin is blended, as usual, with small amounts of carinagne and petite sirah which, to my palate, make the wine more earthy and food friendly than most American zins. Looking back at my review of the 2004, there seems to be considerable similarity between vintages, although the newer wine has less tannin and acidity at its core. Look for big yet balanced dark fruit flavors and a controlled ripeness that always ensures the wine will go well with game, pork, duck, and Thanksgiving turkey.

Ridge Geyserville and Lytton Springs - 2 Zins from '04

I roasted a new brand of organic chicken tonight. It was good, but perhaps not worth twice the price of our standard Amish chickens. We located a pair of half bottles from Ridge and decided to do a Zinfandel tasting. These are two of my favorite zinfandels; they are consistently well made. Paul Draper, the owner and winemaker, deserves credit for popularizing zinfandel and exploring its manifold possibilities through single-vineyard bottlings.

The Geyserville is the fuller-bodied of the two, with considerable structure and an oaky, bacony aroma. It's a bit stronger than the Lytton and spends more time in the barrel. Its texture is denser and the flavors tend more towards dark fruits. The Lytton Springs bottling is softer, fruiter, and more accessible. Like the Geyserville its full-bodied and tannic. Both wines are complex, well structured, and the perfect match for game, lamb, and spicy foods.