Maryhill Winery: 2009 zinfandel (Columbia Valley, Washington)

Today's wine review is from a few weeks back when I was doing my West Coast tour.  It's a bottle my brother Dan had in his cellar, and after a long day of wine tasting at Chateau Ste. Michelle, we were in a vintage wine mood so we cracked this open to pair my homemade goat cheese alfredo sauce over quinoa pasta. The bottle is a 2009-vintage zinfandel from Goldendale, WA,'s Maryhill Winery, located on the Columbia River, about 150 miles southeast of Seattle.

Zinfandel is a kind of high-sugar, black-skinned grape very commonly made into wine. It's also known by the name "Primitivo," which you may recall I reviewed a while back. The "Zinfandel" grape is very popular in California, with at least 10% of vineyards planting it.

I love the ruby color on the pour - really pretty both in the air and in the glass. I didn't refrigerate this; just poured it out and let it sit. 

It was decent - smooth but not a lot of depth. The age of this wine really shows - it mellowed out quite a bit, too much in my opinion, so some of the flavors were lost. There was a dry straw flavor to it, not too much alcohol tastes either, and a slightly sweet finish. I sort of struggled a bit to nail down the taste, I think the grape (and the age) makes it very faint and mellow, almost bordering on clean and tasteless.

I'd be curious to try a young example of this wine and see how it when "fresh." Trying a vintage bottle is tough when you have no reference point. Perhaps next time I'm out West, Dan and I will check the place out.