JW1: If one had the opportunity to purchase some Turley Zins, what would you recommend?

Thanks in advance.

Brent,

Would you like to narrow it down to a particular vintage, drinking window, vinyard/blend, and price ... or is this a theoretical "wish list" and price is immaterial?

The latter.

I am limiting my response to just Turley Zins not the Charbonos (which I am a fan of) and the Petit Syrahs (which are as good as Petit Syrah gets). Further, I am limiting the selected wines to the 1997 vintage or younger. I don't have any more of the 93-96s because I am a big believer that, at best, Zinfandels only survive not improve with age. I would drink up all the 97s soon as well. The only 97 Turley Zinfandels I still have in my cellar are magnums. These restrictions get rid of the Aidas, Whitney-Tennessee etc but luckily there is still plenty of wines to choose from.

Year in and year out my favorite Turley Zinfandels come from the Hayne (97-99 are all special while the 2000 is relatively less so), Moore (all especially the 99), and Tofanelli (all) vineyards. Parker consistently rates the Hayne and Moore vineyards very highly but the Tofanelli vineyard is subject to more violent point swings. In my experience the Toffanelli is just as consistent but is more feminine and thus more susceptible to point reductions from Parker.

Black Sears can make great Zins (the 97 especially) but they can be quite spicy. I am not a huge fan of spice in my Zins. Turley's new Estate Zinfandel can be great in certain vintages (99, 2000) and will surely improve as the vine's mature. Vineyard 101 Zins can also make the upper echelon of Turley Zinfandels in certain vintages (98, 99).

Turley's "lesser" Zins come from the Duarte, Dogtown, and Pesenti vineyards.

Note, I have not tasted the 2001s from bottle yet. I plan to do so this coming weekend and the next issue of Oeno-File will have ratings for most of the current Martinelli and Turley Zinfandel releases.

That is exactly what I was looking for! Many thanks!!!

I had the 1999 Pesenti (last week), was not impressed. And, neither was MudPuppy.

The Pesenti is fairly dissapointing, I agree. I love the Moore Earthquake, and look forward to my first Hayne fairly soon - even if it is the 2000.

I thought the first Turley Pesenti was the 2000. Am I wrong?

The first Turley Pesenti was 2000. The 1999 and 1998 were sold by Turley via their mailing list after they purchased the winery. However, the 2000 was the first vintage completely controlled by Turley Wine Cellars.

I was just at the Turley tasting room in Paso today. My impressions:

2001 White Coat: I have never had this before. Blend of Rousanne, Viognier and Marsanne. Seemed strange to me, especially the grapefruit finish. $38 at the tasting room, I passed.

2001 Juvenile: A complete fruit bomb. Over the top fruit, with a long finish. A year or so in the cellar might (might) help this one for my tastes. $22 at the tasting room, I passed.

2001 Old Vine: While this had a ton of concentrated fruit, it added other elements. As the winemaker notes stated, "fruit and spice, starting with red and black berries, and then moving to the dark side with stewed plums and licorice." Many layers and levels to this one, dare I say almost complex (for a zin). No finesse, but very interesting. $28 at the tasting room, I picked up two bottles.

2001 Pesenti Vineyard: Winemaker notes say "Deep garnet in color, this wine is brimming with velvety currant, silky chocolate and seductive violet, supported by a firm backbone and smooth finish. Leather, mints and herbs frame the rich, upfront raspberry character of the Pesenti Vineyard." I definitely picked up the raspberry and chocolate, along with the leather. Which made this a rather strange cross, with the fruit concentration and power of a zin, but flavors that were more of a cross between a pinot and cab. Long finish. $38 at the tasting room, this was intriguing enough that I picked up two (though money-wise, it is not as good a value as the Old Vine). Another interesting point: I tasted this side by side against the 1999 Pesenti zin, from the last year before Turley purchased this vineyard. The color on the 1999 Pesenti was much deeper than this 2001. The flavors, however, were not as deep, and nowhere near as concentrated. I passed on the 99 at $15.

2001 Tofanelli Vyd. Charbono: $29 at the tasting room. I did not know what to make of this wine. To me, it had a relatively thin core, with fruit surrounding the core. It did not seem to have come together yet. I passed on this one.

1998 Delinquent: A port-like wine at 17.2% alcohol. Pleasant, but not much fruit flavor for a port. At $42 per 375ml bottle, I passed.

They had a few library selections at the tasting room, that were not available for tasting. I picked up a vertical of the Duarte zins from 1996-1999 for $260 (not really worth the money, I expect, but to see how they age), and a horizontal of 1999 Hayne zin, 1999 Hayne Petit Sirah, 1999 Estate zin, and one other zin (can't remember which) for $320, again as an (expensive) experiment. They also had available the 1996 Aida zin for $120, and 2000 Hayne zin for $83, both of which I passed on.

Mike