Rutherford Ranch Winery / Four Virtues Wines - 2016 Lodi Zinfandel, bourbon barrel aged

Here's something I grabbed at Trader Joe's a few years back, and it's about time to discuss it. TJ's was doing a wine tasting, as they often do, and this was on offer so I took a dram. Never having had a bourbon barrel-aged wine before, I  ended up enjoying it so naturally I picked up a bottle to sock away. It's a 2016 Zinfandel from Four Virtues Wines, based in the Lodi area of California. Four Virtues is apparently an imprint of Rutherford Ranch, which I visited in August of 2018.

Bourbon barrel-aged wines are somewhat of a new concept; obviously oak aging has been a part of winemaking for centuries, and while beer has been aged in bourbon barrels for many years, aging wine in ex-bourbon or ex-whiskey vessels is a somewhat new to mainstream consumers.

And what's in a name? It's called "Four Virtues" as, according to Rutherford's website, an unnamed wine writer once suggested that to be successful, "a wine must have four virtues - a distinctive style unlike other, an intense yet not overpowering flavor, a unique expression of origin, and an intense flavor satisfying intellect and palate." Well, seems pretty lofty, so let's crack it open and see which of these virtues this wine embodies.

I should say this wine is HOT - 16.80% ABV, so quite high. Pours thickly into the glass, and generates an unmistakable bourbon aroma which is detectable from a few feet away. Notice the hips on the neck of the bottle - very reminiscent of a Scotch bottle.

It seems much thicker than "normal" wine, and there's definitely some strong bourbon notes here, with a brown sugar sweetness on the end. Additionally, I'm sensing a decent amount of barrel char and some dark juice flavors, like black cherry and even prunes. Very rich, and definitely quite sweeter than I was expecting, and the bourbon woodiness takes center stage as the wine finishes up. The wine coats the mouth and lasts a long time after swallowing.

This reminds me in some ways of a tawny port...not my choice for a dinner pairing, in unfortunate retrospect. I'm on the fence as to if this wine is "intense" or "overpowering", the fine line that determines the second "virtue" stated above. Bourbon drinkers would rejoice at this wine and it's a cool concept to explore, but I think I was wrong in assuming that this wine would be a dinner wine as opposed to a dessert wine. I go back to my tawny port comparison - not something you'd drink with dinner (or maybe you would?)

A neat concept overall, and definitely something on the heavier, boozier end that could make a nice dessert wine. This was $19.99 at Trader Joe's, so if you like your wines on the super-heavy end, give this a go.