DATE CONSUMED
Sunday, August 04, 2013
VINTAGE
2008
WINERY/PRODUCER
Zaca Mesa
WINE NAME
Z Cuvee
TYPE OF WINE
Red blend
COMPOSITION
68% Grenache, 18% Mourvedre, 14% Syrah
SUBNAME/NICKNAME
N/A
VINEYARD DESIGNATION
Estate grown and bottled
REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)
Santa Ynez Valley, California (Santa Barbara County)
ALCOHOL CONTENT
14.5%
PRICE PAID
$21.50
WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED
We bought this bottle from the winery’s tasting room in
November 2012 when we stopped in Paso Robles on our way back to So Cal after
visiting friends near Sacramento over Thanksgiving weekend.
BOUQUET
This wine has a sweet, jammy, spicy bouquet, with
significant red fruit on the nose (perhaps the most prominent red fruit bouquet
I’ve ever experienced with a Southern Rhone-styled red blend). There’s also subtle savory herbs, earth, and
oak playing “peek-a-boo” in the background.
But that jammy red fruit is like an extremely enthusiastic 10-year-old
Sheldon Cooper (reference: “The Big Bang Theory”) sitting in the front row of
class waving his hand wildly when the teacher asks, “Who wants to be first to
read their science report aloud to the class?”
That red fruit can’t WAIT to stand-up and be noticed.
TASTING NOTES
We discovered Zaca Mesa’s Z Cuvee for the first time in
June, 2009 (that bottle was the 2006 vintage, which was also mostly
Grenache). I absolutely fell in love
with that affordable, delicious red blend.
Let’s see how the 2008 fares.
Once again, for a Southern Rhone-styled blend for $20-ish,
this is a difficult bottle to beat.
Despite that aggressive jammy red-fruited bouquet, this wine is not a
coyingly oversweet red. Zaca Mesa makes
fantastic Grenache (when we bought this bottle, we also bought a bottle of
their 2010 Grenache, which was amazing and I can’t wait to open that beauty in
another couple of years), and with this being Grenache-based, it’s almost a
given that this wine, at worst, would be good.
This is indeed a very nice red blend, especially considering
the price. There is indeed plenty of
red fruit on the palate, like raspberries and strawberries (thank you,
Grenache!), along with a decent amount of darker fruit, like plums and
blackberries (thank you, Mourvedre and Syrah!). Though there wasn’t a significant spice profile on the nose,
there is indeed a significant amount of savory herbs flavor-wise, such as
“Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme” (thank you, Simon and Garfunkel!!), along
with plenty of black pepper. There’s
also a tiny bit of oak and earth on the back-end, providing back-up for the
wine’s structural integrity of perfect acidity, smooth, silky tannins, with a
tart, zingy, lingering finish. This
wine is a perfect accompaniment to food, especially since it’s medium-bodied,
very flavorful, and VERY nicely well-balanced.
California’s Central Coast (from the Santa Barbara area in
the south all the way up to Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties in the north) is a
haven for affordable and quality Southern Rhone-style wines (both single
varietal bottlings as well as blends).
Zaca Mesa is just around the corner from one of my favorite Santa
Barbara area wineries (Fess Parker, who makes an extremely affordable
semi/quasi Southern Rhone blend named Frontier Red, which sells for about $10
at BevMo! and Total Wine & More).
So obviously the soil and microclimate in those rolling hills and
valleys are ideal for Southern Rhone varietals, especially Grenache, Syrah, and
Mourvedre (which I call “The Big Three”).
The Paso Robles area makes even better Southern Rhone-style blends
(generally speaking). Tablas Creek
makes a couple of blends that have strikingly similar flavor profiles to actual
Chateauneuf-du-Papes!!
PAIRING SUGGESTIONS
I paired this wine with a perfectly grilled rib eye, spiced
with my Usual Suspects (Kosher salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence). This wine went PERFECTLY with the steak and
would also pair well with just about any other red meat, especially lamb
(chops, shanks, racks, etc.). This wine
is ever-so-slightly Chateauneuf-du-Pape-esque, and it should age well and pair
gorgeously with any red beef dish.
AGING POTENTIAL
This wine is drinking very nicely right now and should
continue to evolve and mature/develop for another 5 to 10 years.
SCORE (on a 100-point scale)
89
Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD,
EXCELLENT)
GOOD
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