The Famous Dr. Miller Wine Tasting Group
Wed. eve. 26 Apr 2000
Zinfandel at

Ferraro's 

The Wines

90 Kenwood Barissia

93 Ferrari-Carrano Sonoma

93 Greenwood Ridge Alexander Vly

94 St. Francis Pagani Ranch
96 Benziger Sonoma

97 Geyser Peak 100-Year-Old Vines
97 Kaz Petit...Zin blend
97 Peterson Dry Creek
97 Quivira Dry Creek
98 Tobin James Dusi Ranch
98 Witch Creek San Sevine


By vote for top three:

97 Geyser Peak 100-Year-Old Vines

96 Benziger Sonoma

94 St. Francis Pagani Ranch

Roll Call:  Ruthie, Steve, Debby, Dan, Jo Anne, Clark, Eric, Harry, A. David

My Tasting Rating (0-10):  8
A remarkably pleasant wine dinner!  All wines very good or excellent.

Had to stand around and wait a bit, but what price...


Notes:  Is there a finer match than zinfandel and Italian food?  If somebody says Angelina Jolie and her brother, I'm gonna hitchu!

The '97 Geyser Peak was almost in everyone's top three.  Consistently good zin.  Remarkable complexity for zinfandel.  Bright fruit in the nose that rises up on the palate and grabs your sinuses. 

'96 Benziger was marvelous!  Very good zinfandel.  Zin nose, zin flavors, zin alcohol.  Benziger is one of the most underrated wine producers in CA.

The '94 St. Francis Pagani was a very good zin and wasn't typically over-oaked.  The wood showed up as toasted coconut in the nose.  Highly extracted, concentrated black fruit flavors.

General comment:  All the wines were very good!  Third place was a hard choice.  This tasting would have converted a non-zin fan into an unholy zinner like the rest of us.


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Ferraros-011s.jpg (36294 bytes) I'm telling you, it's gonna be a bakery!