Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin

For Christmas Brent and I received a $75.00 gift card from Brent's mom for a wine gallery in South Reno called Luva Bella. Yesterday we went and spent every last cent of it and then 12 more cents. I highly recommend Luva Bella, the service was great. They were not wine snobs and did not treat us like we did not know enough about wine to be shopping there. We basically told the guy our usual price point and what types of wine we normally drink. He made some recommendations and we followed all of them.

We purchased our favorite port, some Cabernet, a merlot, and this Zin. This wine is made by the Gnarly Head Cellars of Manteca California. "The 2005 Gnarly Head Old Vine Zinfandel is crafted from grapes from 35 to 80 year old vines. Rich, dark berry flavors from the small grape clusters are balanced with French, American and Hungarian oak. Luscious layers of plum, pepper and chocolate provide a lingering and spicy finish." The grapes are actually from Lodi California. We have been to Lodi for a soccer tournament - they pretty much have nothing but vineyards there and unfortunately we did not have time to do any tasting due to our soccer schedule.

Before tasting this wine, our favorite zin was 7 Deadly Zins which we told the gentlemen at the wine gallery. He was out of it, because it is so popular, but recommended this one as being similar. It was not until I was doing research for this blog entry that I realized it was from Lodi also. We still love the 7 Deadly, the Gnarly Head is a bit sweeter and smoother.

The price point for the Gnarly Head is about $12.00 which makes this a great wine all around and is even cheaper than the 7 Deadly which is about $15.00 a bottle.

The Ruybalids give it 2 stemless glasses up!