A New Kind of Tasting Note

The 2013 Zinfandel has been taking Southern California by storm the past few months at wine shop tastings and festivals... so I decided to pop a cork and join the fun.

One of my favorite parts of being curator is writing tasting notes. I just love the ritual of it.

From cutting the foil and wrestling with the cork to the sound of the first splash as I pour a glass in tickling anticipation of a wine stain on my tongue. With my eyes closed the entire time (truly- I type and take notes [poorly]) I sniff and smell and sip and scrutinize and study and savor and have a marvelous time.

My tasting note sessions always start the same way; with the utter disbelief that getting lost in a glass of wine is in the job description. Then I prepare for where the bottled adventure takes me. It’s a real treat when I get to revisit a wine after a year or two because you know what they say; nothing ages more beautifully than a fine wine.

And what a difference a couple of years can make. Maybe it’s my lack of travel or maybe it’s the wine, but this journey was nothing like what I had before.

My latest experience of the Block 2 2013 Zinfandel from La Vista Vineyards was certainly something different.

The miraculous but unmistakable aroma of perfectly precise trellises that line the rolling hills fill your breath as you pause to decide if it is the limestone or the clay soil under your feet. The taste of the sun on your cheeks and the clouds that clandestinely look like a cluster of grapes soak your mouth. The sip lingers as if time could stand still so long Norman Rockwell created a masterpiece on your palate in a painting that you experience with everything but your eyes.

Maybe it was because it’s been too long since I visited the vineyards or maybe it’s because I had might have had more than one glass on this tasting note trip…

… But whatever it was, I hope you travel with me to Central Coast wine country and uncork the essence of Paso Robles and all that means to you.