SuppliedRavenswood Vintners Blend Old Vine Zinfandel
Sherbrook Liquor Store, $26
When you’re invited as your father’s plus one to a fancy work function, free alcohol is one of the first things that comes to mind. So this weekend when I attended a giant paid-for dinner, I was obviously pretty stoked about the promise of a boundless wine list. Now, everybody knows that when you attend a dinner event paid by work, you should never be the jerk who orders the most expensive wine on the menu—instead, be the jerk that orders the second-most expensive. This is exactly what I did, and I ended up with Ravenswood Vintners Blend Zinfandel. Of course, in the end they probably charged the same amount for a 9oz glass as an entire bottle would cost at Liquor Depot—such is the vino life.
When the waitress brought me my wine, I knew I was in a good place. This Zinfandel is a deep red at the core, and semi-translucent on the rim. On the nose, you find a strong but pleasant tinge of black cherry and oak. Your first sip will be a gorgeous mix of cherry, raspberry and blueberry with a hint of smoke and spice. If this doesn’t sound intriguing for you, let me tell you: it’s freaking delicious. Perhaps it was the fact that I wasn’t paying for it, or maybe the fact that I drank far more of it than I should have, but this wine is lovely. Picture it as the alcohol-version of Leonardo DiCaprio: it’s handsome, from California and even if it hasn’t won the National Wine Award (the Oscar of Winemaking), you know that it’ll be good no matter what.
