September 11 2007
My friends and I have acknowledged that some bars, with attractive, but well-worn and hard living female bartenders are the last stop way station in some sort of secret lifecycle; the stripper life station having already been completed, and true hard luck yet to fully manifest itself. It’s the beer slinging place where strippers go to die. Now that I think about it, I guess a butterfly analogy would be nicer, but life isn’t always pretty. Nor is buying wine at retail.
In an analogous fashion and in the vein of way stations and life cycles, I now know where older vintages of wine go to die. They go to a “fine wine” shop in Indianapolis, IN.
The vast majority of wine purchased in the U.S. is drunk within a week of purchase. What’s not immediately consumed tends to be drunk in the next couple of years, if it makes it that long. Only a slight percentage of wine is set aside for aging. Simply put, if we see an older vintage wine that’s not an age-worthy Bordeaux or Cabernet for sale in a wine shop, it should be reason to pause.
And, so it was as I browsed a local wine shop recently. On display were a dozen, well-merchandised 1999 Zinfandel’s from a well-known, quality-minded producer—Steele. I’ve very much enjoyed Steele Syrah and their second-labels in the past and taking a flyer on an older vintage of their Zin wasn’t much of a stretch even if, aside from this wine shop’s fine wine room, virtually all other wine in the shop ranged in age from ’01 to ’06.
Nonetheless, the ’99 Steele Du Pratt Vineyard Zinfandel for $18.99 was nestled next to ‘04’s beckoning me to purchase it in yet another $20 social experiment in the name of blogging research.
The shelf-talker compared it to a Claret—giving an indication, to me at least, that it would be age-worthy and drinking just fine in ’07. I figured it might be a bit more austere than a typical California Zin, but still a nice wine. The label invited additional curiosity—a California Zin that has 13% alcohol. Hmmm … that’s not something you see very often.
Nevertheless, I bought the bottle and started to do some research figuring that I could track down some information somewhere on this wine.
The Internet, however, is mostly barren of information on the ’99 Steele Zin. In fact, if you go to Wine-searcher.com, said Indianapolis wine shop is the ONLY ONE in the country listed as having this wine.
The Steele web site had this to say about the vintage and wine:
1999 Steele Zinfandel
DuPratt Vineyard
Mendocino Ridge
Vintage - After the almost disastrous vintage of 1998 we awaited a better vintage in 1999. Well we waited and waited and waited some more. As the season progressed our hopes dimmed. The weather remained cool and sugars stayed low. Almost miraculously the sun came out toward the end of the vintage and gave enough heat to ripen the crop.
Vineyard - Even in a good year, picking the DuPratt in not always easy. A mountain vineyard with hilly terrain gives some vines more sun. By its nature Zinfandel ripens unevenly and each cluster has raisins, ripe berries and under-ripe berries. Choosing when to harvest takes skill, intuition and sometimes, good luck. Our answer to this is a test pick in which we harvest two rows, which run the length of the vineyard. If we get what we feel are adequate sugars after a day of soaking on the skins, we then harvest the remainder of the vineyard.
Winemaking - This tiny 5.5 acre plot of 80 year old vines has always produced wines of spectacular quality. The long season enjoyed by grapes grown in the Mendocino Ridge appellation does allow full ripeness and consistent quality year in and year out. Aging for 16 months in a special mix of French oak barrels is the other key to the great flavors and drinking pleasure that is a hallmark of the DuPratt Zinfandel. The long season and elevation makes wines which are rich, elegant and complex. They are more like fine Claret than typical old vine Zinfandel from California.
What do I deduce from buying a ’99 in ’07, reading the vintage notes about poor ripening and having a Zin at 13% alcohol that is compared to a Claret instead of a Zinfandel, its grape? Well, I wouldn’t deduce much if the wine was worth a damn, but it’s not. It’s devoid of fruit, has a metallic edge to it and the oak hasn’t softened out. Plus, the wine leaves a bad, astringent after taste.
Because of all the empirical data that I have at hand:
1) Sub-$20 ‘99’s aren’t that prevalent at retail in ‘07
2) A California Zin is compared to a Claret instead of its namesake grape
3) It has 13% alcohol when CA Zins are almost always 14% and above
4) Producer acknowledges on the web site that ’99 was a difficult growing year
5) It is only sold at one retailer in the country, according to Wine-Searcher.com
6) My tastebuds confirm that this is crappy wine
What I deduce is that I have been duped … a bespectacled accountant from the wholesaler found this in an inventory audit, dusted it off, had a sales guy give a sweetheart deal to the retailer, and the retailer foisted it onto me with margins exceeding 50% or greater, with a shelf talker exhorting me to enjoy this “Claret-style” wine with food.
I’ve railed against this retailer before for doing what I consider to be fairly consistent and ongoing scurrilous activity, but what I didn’t realize is that this is also a place that wine goes to die, or to be passed onto an unsuspecting public.
In hindsight, I would have preferred to use my $20 bucks to buy four beers with $4 bucks left for a tip from an attractive, well-worn bartender with a life story—at least this way I’d know my money was going somewhere beneficial. Heck, ’99 was probably a good year for her.
Posted in, Free Run: Field Notes From a Wine Life. Permalink | Comments (3) |
The winery vintage and vineyard note are priceless. I’m surprised there wasn’t a shelf-talker in the store to let you know about the difficult weather and the challenging vineyard site…
Thanks for commenting, guys. I would say that “pissed” is semi-strong, but “annoyed” definitely works. In fact, “annoyingly pissed” might work, too.
The thing is, I’ve learned my lesson with this retailer at least thrice, yet I keep going back for a bigger, better flogging.
I’d ask the retailer about this, but the last time I did, I got a note back saying, in effect, “I’ll never apologize for making a profit.” So, it really boils down to Caveat Emptor.
Thanks again for reading!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License
Design by The Blog Studio
Print
Pissed off, are ya? Sounds like this should have been a $5 special. How come you just didn’t take it back to the retailer and tell him to drink it?
I drank a lot of Steele (mostly the Pinot Noirs, incl. the DuPratt ones) 10-15 years ago, but I almost never see his wines here in Northern California. I’ve even tasted at their tasting room in Lake County (“where no major roads will go”)...think that’s the only one in that county I’ve tasted at.
“The vast majority of wine purchased in the U.S. is drunk within a week of purchase.” Well, yeah, but that’s counting Jug/Franzia/Chuck wine…some don’t count that as wine. And 20% of wine drunk in the US (or so I read/heard this week) is White Zin (must be the College Wine of Choice for a New Generation).