TN: '97 Stillman Brown Zinfandel

[Van The Man]

Why do people do this to wine???

1997 Stillman Brown Zinfandel; Santa Clara Lion Oaks Ranch, Paso Robbles - $25.00

Inky purple color. Nose with some black cherry, rose petal and violets but cluttered with too much oak. On the palate, coarsely tannic with more oak than fruit with the fruit struggling to get through. With some air time, the wine was a bit more accessible but was still too oaky. A true crime against wine. I’ll never understand why someone puts something like this in a bottle. Even oak fans would be troubled with this one in my mind. Maybe some time will drop the oak level.

[Thomas]

I see by your posts you have been busy tasting.

Re, oak: we seem to agree on the subject. Perhaps you and I can invent a product to extract from a bottle of wine the oak extractions. It should make us quite wealthy; start at winery one and keep going until winery 2,000. Think of it!