| The Vintage & Doug's Comments |
My Tasting Notes |
2000
"An above average vintage which pushed alcohol levels towards 14%, but
it doesn't have the tannic structure of 1999..." |
Beautifully bright ruby red color with excellent fruity, raspberryish
aromas. It almost doesn't taste dry, perhaps due to the relatively low level of
tannin and the exceptional fruit on the palate. |
1999
"...best vintage since 1994...no faults or flaws...I like the spicy
finish. It's unusually spicy..." |
Very bright ruby red color...lots of berryish notes and sweet oak...cedary
notes with some vanillin...very intense, mouthfilling fruit...fresh...nice tannins...very
fine. |
1998
"...tough year, with some of the same problems we encountered in
1989...astringent and not a whole lot of depth..." |
Youthful robe...sweet cherry notes with a hint of raspberry and a faint
herbal note. Very light on the oak...dry, medium-bodied and lightly tannic. |
1997
"A year with a serious amount of botrytis...highly acclaimed by some of
The Critics...many wines have high levels of volatile acidity, making them attractive to
many at an early stage, but not a vintage to keep more than a couple of years..." |
We had this in one of our blind-tastings and it didn't fare well, so I was
curious to re-visit the 1997. I found mildly herbal notes and a cocoa note.
Softer styled and a bit shy of fruit, though it seems to have a tannic 'grip' which gives
this wine a sense of strength...Graceful. |
1996
"Reminiscent of the 1975 vintage in that it was overshadowed by the
bigger, more flashy wines which preceded and followed...Much like the 1992 and 1988
vintages...this wine is 'tight' and I don't know what it's gonna do. It's in
purgatory right now." |
Clear...medium ruby color...bright fruit, brambly and very much "Dry
Creek" in fragrances, with a hint of a dusty note. Very nice on the palate,
it's both nicely developed and yet seems to have a bright future. |
1995
"..The highest alcohol, with a hint of sweet volatile acidity...it shows
a green, stemmy note. It lacks 'middle' and is best to drink now..." |
I was more positive about this wine than was winemaker Doug Nalle. I
thought it displayed some vanillin and creamy notes with clove and nutmeg spices.
Medium bodied, it still has a touch of tannin which suggest a few more years of cellaring
are possible. |
1994
"I like the little bit of Brettanomyces and barnyard notes in this
wine...It's a lot like the 1991 in that it's still not quite 'there' yet..." |
I found the leathery notes of Brettanomyces, though it was not off of the
charts in that respect. It's a bit dusty and spicy. I was bothered by a bit of
heat and the warm, tannic 'bite.' |
1993
"...this is a surprising vintage. I keep waiting for it to go
belly up....1993 was a less-than-stellar vintage and yet this wine is surprisingly
good...." |
Medium ruby color, this displays mild fruit with some berryish notes and a
touch of an herbal tone. The overall impression is a touch sweet with respect to the
fruit. Quite a nice mouth-full of wine and it still has some tannins to resolve.
|
1992
"...I'm surprised it's held up. I didn't think much of this at the
outset. The vintage produced really small berries...it's a decent glass of wine, if
a bit thin, like an okay Chianti..." |
I found some vanillin notes in this wine with the Nalle "clove &
nutmeg" spice elements. It's got a dried fruit element, hinting at raisins or
prunes, but only a hint. |
1991
"...This has always been a favorite. It's weird but weird in a
great way...I like the start, middle and finish....It has some Brettanomyces and it did
have CO2 at one point, so there was something going on in the bottle a few
years ago..." |
Nice fruit with hints of berries and cocoa...mildly leathery notes with
the point of development which indicates it's gone as far as it will go. It still
has a bit of tannin...I was reminded of the rose petal notes one finds in aged Barolo. |
1990
"...It's fading and at the end of the line. Why wait to drink
this? I'm happy it's lasted as long as it has..."
Doug also noted that a number of earlier vintages are still alive and kicking.
|
With a somewhat brickish-colored, aged robe, this is mildly brambly with a
sweet bouquet...refined and elegant, it's still a shade tannic, but fully developed.
Nice. |
He
and his wife Lee have a small "underground" (ha!) cellar located behind a small
patch of old vines on Dry Creek Road in Healdsburg. The cellar is, technically,
above ground as you can see in this photo (taken from their residence). But upon
closer inspection, you'll see there's vegetation covering the building! Doug has
several inches of soil over the top of the building and it's covered with rosemary bushes!
His wife's family owns some vineyard property, her grand-pappy having planted
the vin in this photo back in 1927. Doug gets Zin from several neighboring
vineyards, all the fruit being from Dry Creek Valley.
Doug's recipe is simple: There are six open-top fermentation tanks in
which he ferments the juice. The winery has a bunch of barrels stacked up on metal
barrel racks. 
"Better to bottle the wine a bit early while it has its fruit, than to
lose the fruit by leaving it too long in wood." he explains.
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