2008 Zaca Mesa Z Cuvee

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

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.zacamesa.com/