A big, "fruit bomb" type zinfandel (14.6% alcohol), but it also has a nice resin note to balance out the red fruit. The nose is generally red fruit with some nice acid; in fact, the acid makes this wine a nice accompaniment with food.
It has a nice round mouthfeel, and has some taste complexity from beginning through middle to end. But it does lack some complexity, and the abundant red fruit is hard to decompose into component fruit flavors. And even though it does have some acid and resin, it's not a particularly well balanced wine.
Here's what the winery has to say about the wine:
Playful blackberry with undertones of smoke and pepper greet one in the glass. Black cherry and jam are complemented by hints of violet and oak.
We couldn't distinguish among the blackberry, black cherry, and jam the way we would have liked, and the violet was too subtle for my (admittedly deficient) palate.
But it's a good wine at $14, from a winery in the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains (although these grapes are from nearby Lodi). We'd give it a B+, 88 points, which is pretty good value for money.
