Wine of the Week: 2009 Quivira Dry Creek Zinfandel

It's Wine Wednesday, it's time once more to uncork another "Wine of the Week" segment. Like the folks over at ESPN daily radio segment; I to am spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of wines; the thrill of finding well made wines for reasonable prices and the agony of uncorking muddled over oaked flabby, fruit-bomb messes.

Thus it's with great pleasure that I bring to your attention a well made Zinfandel from one of the best places in the world known for producing high quality Zin's, that place is called the Dry Creek Valley.

"The Idyllic Dry Creek Valley may be small but this Northern Sonoma viticultural area is best known for its zinfandel's which can range from robust to delicate" ~ Karen MacNeil of Wine Bible fame. Truer words about the fantastic wines coming from this very tiny AVA in northern Sonoma County have never been spoken.

In today's wine of the week spotlight is the 2009 Quivira Dry Creek Zinfandel, a great representation of what Zinfandel was meant to be, a wine that has little something for everybody. A dark inky gob of goodness in the glass color-wise, a blackberry and raspberry compote laid over supple tannins, nice acid, leading to a plush, lingering finish. Selling for the mere suggested retail price of $20 this wine hits every note on the yumminess scale and with that a well-balanced score of 91 points.

All Zinfandel fans will rejoice in what I think is a really well crafted wine that nicely reigns in some of the flabbier notes some Zin's can yield and puts a nice touch of elegance not often associated with Zin's in this price point. Perhaps because this wine has a few other grapes in the blend as minor players, I just call that smart blending adding some nice depth to back-end. This wine definitely gets my highly coveted and often sought after "drink now and drink often" recommendation. So, what are you waiting for order today, before there's no more and that would be a real-zin.

What to Pair: This is my suggestion and you of course have your own faves, but I just wanted to throw this out for your consideration. A couple [okay maybe three] of Carne Asada tacos went quite well with this Zin the night before I departed to Navarra. I have my own version of Carne Asada which I love to use, a seasoned Tri-Tip I had barbecued the night before leaving it a bit on the rare-side to facilitate a quick pan-sear the next day, blended corn and wheat flour shells and some fresh made salsa, not too hot or it will over power the wine. Of course the usual suspects [guacamole, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce] are standing by waiting to jump these tacos with added flavors.