We ventured to a new wine region in California last weekend, Lake County. Besides boasting the largest inland lake, Clear Lake, and best air quality in California, Lake County is also home to a barely dormant volcano that left rich deposits of soil enriched with lava over the years. Like the great wines of Sicily, the volcanic soil greatly affects the grapes and give them a unique characteristic of iron or flint (these are good terms in wine speak—weird, we know).
We were hosted by DOTW friends and hit up the Lake County Wine Adventure. Unfortunately, due to a very important birthday on Sunday (not mine), I had to skip the festivities on Sunday. But, we gave it our best efforts on Saturday!
This week’s Wine Wednesday comes from the last winery that we went to in Kelseyville (a super cute little town populated with a few tasting rooms). It’s from Wildhurst Winery’s lower end line called Mackinaw (given that one of my favorite childhood trips was to Mackinaw Island, I couldn’t resist). The price was right at $9.00 per bottle ($7.65 thanks to the discount given to the DOTW friend). I took it home to try it and it made the cut to be included in Wine Wednesday.
The Mackinaw 2008 Zinfandel is a medium ruby hue with the rim starting to go garnet, medium acidity, light tannins and medium bodied. On the nose, there are aromoas of blueberry (for me one of the characteristics of Zinfandel), currant, fig, violet and granite. On the palate, the flavors are intense and jammy with flavors of blueberry, brambleberry, currant, fig, violet, pepper and granite. We also note the mouth feel on this wine, it’s luscious and lively and makes me want to eat grapes (probably because I paired it with red grapes smothered in Point Reyes blue cheese). Medium finish.
Give this wine a try with blue cheese or a beef roast (or better yet, a beef roast stuffed with blue cheese).
Salut!
