Ravenswood Vintner’s Blend Zinfandel

I had been hesitant to try a red zinfandel based on the name association with white zinfandel, a wine I have a long distaste for (nothing personal, just not something I can get into).  While shopping at my local market, a table had been set up for tasting some wines, and the Ravenswood Zinfandel was among them.  Never one to turn down free samples, I tasted the wine.  To say I was surprised would be an understatement.

The pepper at the finish was what caught me off guard the most, but in a good way.  Finishing my far too tiny sample, I enjoyed the smoothness of the front end of the wine, but looked forward to the pepper at the end.  Buying a bottle, I took this wine home and eventually enjoyed it with a meal of homemade jambalaya that had been made with shrimp and andouille sausage that possessed a smokey flavor that went very well with the pepper of the Ravenswood.

I cannot recommend this wine enough, and with a price range of $9 to $11, you really aren’t going to find a better deal on a very high quality zinfandel.  This is a must buy and I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.  Go try this one today.

2004 Fisheye Shiraz

This weekend I tried a California Shiraz that I found…interesting.  The 2004 Fisheye Shiraz that I purchased wasn’t actually a bottle, but a box of wine.  While boxes of wine have certainly carried a stigma for many years, thanks in no small part to Franzia, more and more vineyards are starting to offer their wines in a 3L box that allows for more wine to be purchased without the need to store multiple bottles of wine.
The 2004 Fisheye Shiraz that I bought retailed for around $17 at my local grocer, much less expensive than buying 4 bottles of a similar wine, and I paired it with a pigs in the blanket meal that was cooked in au jus and served over cooked pasta.  The Fisheye Shiraz did an good job of adding a bit of flavor to the meat that had been slow cooking all day, but when sipped by itself it did nothing to inspire me.  While it wasn’t bad by any means, it didn’t do anything to make me sit up and take notice either.  It was sort of just…eh.
While I would still recommend this wine to somebody looking for a middle of the road Shiraz that they might drink one to two glasses of a night, I can’t help but give the 2004 Fisheye Shiraz 2.5 stars out of 5.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either.