Zinfandel-Great Buy 2000 CLINE California

[elloco]

Fruity, mediyum body, Light oak, Very drinkable! $6.99-$7.99. YUM! Buy 2 Bottles, Drink it now!!!

[This message has been edited by elloco (edited 05-18-2002).]

[winoweenie]

You have lots of company here on the Cline wines. Almost as many posts as there are on the King Ranch. WW

[ShortWiner]

I picked up a bottle of this stuff ($13) last night. Happened to run across it in the store and remembered all the glowing posts. Took it home and popped it to ward off the cold and the wet. Was prepared to like it a lot, but ended up with only a "pretty good" response. There was a lot of chocolate on the nose and the palate. That was interesting--never had a zin quite like that before. But to my taste there was some fruit missing and the alcohol (14%) was too much in evidence, leaving me unhappy with the finish. Anyone else have this response? Could I have had a bad bottle?

[hotwine]

You've pretty well described it, SW. I don't use it as a quaffer, but it works OK with hamburgers and barbecue.

[Kcwhippet]

The Cline California Zin is pretty much our go to wine for nice, easy drinker with the summer grill fare - burgers and such, not something ike ribeye.

[ShortWiner]

KC, I didn't find it that easy to drink. I'm not normally terribly sensitive to alcohol, but here it seemed out of balance.

[Kcwhippet]

Are you keeping your wine too warm? Chill it down for about 15 to 20 minutes and try it.

[ShortWiner]

Could be. I'll try giving it a quick chill next time. Somehow I think I got a bad bottle on this one, though. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/frown.gif[/img]

[hotwine]

Had the last of these tonight with burgers. Much better balance than I remember from a couple of years ago, still good fruit, no noticeable oak, and the heat was barely evident. Cline overall seems to be in DE-Cline IMO, but this 2000 is still hanging in there.

[californiagirl]

Has anyone tried the current vintage? How is that comparing to everyone's fav a few years back?

[Innkeeper]

If you seach around, you will find that the vintages after '00 have been generally unfavorable.

[Kcwhippet]

I've been finding that, too, IK. Very disappointing!

[jmcginley1]

I have to agree, Cline has been slipping recently it seems. This is most notable with their Syrah, which has gone frome a great value to undrinkable IMHO.