Saturday night – Amy’s needs two and half people to replace her! Part 1

Amy was off this weekend on a business trip so our usual Saturday night cast of characters was different this weekend. Mick was cooking up his usual Saturday night bevy of delights and added in two guests for the night – John and Kimmy.

John and Kimmy have been living in British Columbia for the last few years, but have returned to the nest as they are expecting a little John (shudder) or a little Kimmy (please God, let it be a girl that takes after Kimmy as we only need one John on this planet!) in the next few months. All of John and Kimmy’s families are in Ontario so this area has a much better support network than BC did. (Note – I kid John because I care, Mick, John and I have been buddies for so long that it isn’t funny.)

So as Kimmy wasn’t drinking due to the pregnancy, John would have to take Amy’s place as the ‘Russian’ judge for the evening.

"Great Pinot! Oh it's a Zinfandel?"

Mick’s starter for the evening was his world famous Chicken Quesadillas paired with a 2006 Bogle Old Vines Zinfandel. As Mick was out cooking up the Quesadillas, I poured out the wine. I was surprised as I poured the wine into the glasses how ‘thin’ it was. Usually the colour and clarity for Zinfandels is dark and opaque, the colour was a nice ruby red but the clarity was almost Pinot Noir like.

The Bogle did have a pretty nose of vanilla, raspberry, strawberry and smoke. Tasting it was interesting as well as it had big fruit, high acid and low tannin which caused the balance to be off on this wine. Funny with the fruit, acid and tannin this was another thing that was more Pinot like than Zinfandel like. On its own I wasn’t impressed with this wine but it was much better with the food. The cheese in the Chicken Quesadillas and the sour cream dip help neutralize the acid in the wine and made it very agreeable.

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick - 87, Mark - 86, Kathy – 84, John - 85, Overall – 85.5.

I know Mick picked this wine up in the US as the LCBO has no listing for any of the wines that are made by Bogle.

Here is what the Wine Spectator has to say about the wine –

Bogle Zinfandel California Old Vine 2006

Supple, juicy and easygoing, showing cola and bright cherry aromas, with spice and zesty licorice flavors. Drink now. 100,000 cases made. –TF

Score – 85, Price $11

At an $11 US price point that would be about $19 CDN after duty, taxes and exchange. At that price point this wasn’t a bad Zinfandel, though it was probably the most Pinot Noir like Zinfandel I have ever experienced.

Click here for Part 2.