2014 Housley's Century Oak Winery Old vine Zinfandel Inez's Vineyard Lodi

I've looked at this bottle in the power buy section of the W. Lebanon liquor store for a few months now, and what I had read about it up to this point about the wine hadn't convinced me to try a bottle.

 But a different review showed up in my search, which mentioned that this winery had been voted best of Lodi a couple of times. So that made me decide to give this a try...

When first opened, the nose has notes of blackberry, cherry, black raspberry, and a freshness that is intriguing. It tastes of red fruits with nice acidity that has a palate cleansing effect, and a lingering finish of fruit on the tongue. The tannins are fine and pleasant, not overly mouth drying. The color is red and translucent, not overly extracted and dark.

After 30 minutes the fruit notes blend together and a spicy note is added to the nose, with almost a hint of raspberry. The palate has all of the fruit notes mentioned above, blended together into a very tasty sip.

I enjoyed this wine with the wurst (sausages) in the picture, along with grilled summer squash and zucchini, topped with tomato-basil feta and a drizzle of traditional dark balsamic vinegar from Infuse Me (in the powerhouse mall) and baby Yukon potatoes seasoned with kosher salt, onions, pepper, olive oil and bacon..... delicious! a great match....

Day 2 brings notes of tobacco leaf and ripe fruit, cherry, black fruit, hints of cinnamon, and spice in the nose. The palate is blended fruit flavors that beg another sip, a nice medium mouth feel with a spice note and the same pleasant lingering fruit notes on the finish.

This is a well made wine, and a chance to try a single vineyard bottling that nornally would cost you a lot more...This will pair well with a number of foods from the grill, and red sauce dishes with meat in them.

Available at the NH Liquor outlets for $12.99 per bottle in the power buy section, that's about half it's normal retail price.... I think you could buy a case of this and enjoy it over the next 18 months or so with no problem.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this wine....

Cheers!

Ed