Lot 43 2005 Dry Creek Zinfandel
- Vintage: 2005
- Appellation: Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma
- Grape: 80% Zinfandel, 15% Syrah, 5% Petite Syrah
- Alcohol by volume: 15%
- Production: 7,000 cases
- Release date: August 30, 2007
- Online availability: Sold out
Find out what the critics think.
Taste: This is classically styled Dry Creek Zinfandel and probably even more elegant given the long, cool growing season of 2005. The nose smacks of boysenberry, raspberry and plum and is underpinned with black pepper notes that will become more forward as the zin and syrah continue to meld in the bottle. The palate is fleshy and ripe and full-bodied showing raspberry fruit and vanilla oak. The finish is lush and lingering.
Cameron Confidential: There are several wines seamlessly woven together for this wine, three zins, one syrah, and 1 petite sirah. All are from $20+ producers. The 2005 harvest was not only one of the largest in history for CA, but it was also one of the longest. Zin grapes didn’t come in until the end of October and into November and a more elegant style became the hallmark of the vintage. Quite frankly, a lot of folks fell short as needed heat spikes failed to materialize. That’s where our flexible buying model allows us to excel. Rather than try to work with only the fruit and wines that we have, Cameron Hughes Wine is able to bring component wines from multiple sources together to achieve a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The combination of raspberry fruit and black pepper from the zin blend melds beautifully with the ripe fruit and American oak influenced Syrah. Petite sirah muscles up the blend further and provides length and tannin.
As of August 2007, when I last tasted this wine, it had just emerged from bottle shock and was pretty much ready to go. By the time this stuff hits the street in about a month it should be singin’.
