T. Edward Wines

When drinking wines from California, one doesn’t usually think about older vintages of Pinot and Chard or wines made from a Solera system, but that’s exactly what we drank at our ZD wine dinner last night.

 

 

To celebrate our arrival to Napa and the addition of a new family member to the winery’s operations, Brett deLeuze cracked open the good stuff last night, direct from his personal cellar.

 

 

We started with the current vintage of ZD Chard and a 1978 bottling. It was remarkable how much acidity remained in the older vintage. With nutty, caramelized flavors and good structure it was a great pairing for our diverse set of appetizers.

 

 

The 1982 Pinot had the same story. A remarkable amount of fruit remained in the bottle and integrated well with the tertiary aromas of mushrooms, earth and smoke. Again the wine was still very balanced by its acidity. Drinking it side by side with the 2008 showed that even with a difference in age both wines were full of character and one did not overwhelm the other.

 

 

Last but most certainly not least we had a bottle of the famous and rare Abacus. Abacus is a solera style multiple-vintage blend of every ZD Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon ever produced, which is held in barrel until bottling. The first bottling, with the 1992 – 1998 vintages, was released November 1, 1999. Approximately 15% of the total blend was bottled in distinctive custom bottles, totaling 200 cases. The remainder was returned to barrel to await the next infusion of youthful fruit. Prior to the second bottling, the 1999 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon was added to the blend. This is the ongoing cycle of the ever-evolving solera.

 

 

Last night we had the ninth bottling, which held vintages 1992 to 2006.  The wine had incredible depth and complexity, with both yourthful and developed features. Dark black currant flavors combined with coffee, cocoa and tobacco, well integrated tannins and an everlasting finish. It was a realt treat. At stock in our office a few bottles remaining of the most recent, eleventh bottling for interested customers…

 

 

After a delicious dinner and some rest, we are ready to head off to the ZD winery for a cook out and tour, followed by a 30-66 mile bike ride Tuesday that will track a portion of the Tour de California. Yesterday we watched Lance Armstrong and the crew ride Stage 1 for some inspiration.

Wish us luck, I think we’ll need it! More to come later.

Cheers,

Georgia