Marietta Old Vine Red

[NulloModo]

Last evening a couple friends and I opened a bottle that had been sitting neglected on a wine rack around my apartment for the better part of the past two years. The wine was labled 'Marietta California Old Vine Red, lot No. 30', and had no indication of the type of grapes or style of wine (unless perhaps Old Vine Red is a style).

Anyway, this turned out to be a wonderful wine. Very flavorful, and it smelled very grapey when sniffing before drinking. A little bit of a sweet taste when sipped while inhaling, but almost spicey and rather full when sipped without inhaling.

In all respects this was far better than the last bottle of red wine I tried, which was a Sutter Home 2000 vintage Cabernet Sauvingon (a wine that managed to be nearly completely flavorless, and was relegated to cooking status).

[winesonoma]

The winery website. Lots of value for the money. http://www.mariettacellars.com/

[john@thebar]

Old Vine Red is a juicy, unpretentious, mostly zinfandel blend that restores one's faith in California's ability to market wine worth every cent you pay for it (in this case usually $12.00 or less). They don't vintage date this wine but give it a lot number instead, and when it sells out they release the next batch with the next lot number. The Lot 33 has been in the market for several months now, so your Lot 30 is several years old. I've never tasted any Lot that I didn't enjoy, and the damnest thing is that they seem to keep getting better with each release. By the way, whoever you fed what you cooked with the Sutter Home : what did they do to piss you off?

Edited June 27, 2004 by john@thebar (log)

[NulloModo]

By the way, whoever you fed what you cooked with the Sutter Home : what did they do to piss you off?

Eh, I am new with the wine thing. I never thought I liked wine, because my only previous experience had been at Thanksgiving dinner at my parents where they would ask that I have an olbigatory glass of what was usually white zinfandel, or possibly something out of the bargain bin. I just found it bitter and nowhere near as tasty as beer or bourbon.

Then, a couple years ago, I was at a friends house and he opened up a bottle of some Australian (maybe it was from California) white called 'Kali Heart' or something similar sounding, and it was wonderful. I decided the next day to go to the liquor store and buy a wine rack and stock it, so I did.

Now, they had no idea what I was talking about when I asked for Kali Heart (that might not even be the name), so I wandered around and picked up bottles that looked interesting, and names I recognized. Thus I was left with a rack including Sutter Home, Luna di Luna, Wild Vines, and other such wines. I was severely unimpressed by the wine again, and most of them just sat there for the next year. I ended up buying another wine rack (what can I say, it was on sale) and thus needed to stock it as well, but this time I went to a bigger liquor store with a wine-guy, and asked him for some recommendations. From this I came home with the Marietta old vine red, a bottle of Dow's Port, a white wine called 'Virtuoso' and several other things. All that I have tried from his recommendations have been excellent. Virtually everything that I picked out myself has been crap.

So, I now still have bottles of Sutter Home and Wild Vines that have been aging on the rack for a couple years, and I can't rightly waste them, so I figure that everyday cooking tasks would be a good way to waste them away. Either that or I should put them in a box and leave them in front of one of the dorm buildings once the local University comes back into session...

[LindaJ]

Well the Sutter Home and the Wild Vines will not age. Actually, the majority of wine is made to be drunk upon release. I have acquired bottles like that from friends who know I like wine. They are good hearted people, but don't understand that this really doesn't count as wine in my book. I redistribute these bottles to other people who enjoy this stuff, but the idea of finding a (legal age) college student is not too far off the mark

This place is a terrific place to learn about wine by the way. You'll read about lots of wine for great prices that will encourage you to free up space in those racks for the good stuff.