One Bottle Post (After my WSET study began = have I learned anything?)

Going over to All Corked Up a few weeks ago to collect my WSET Level 2 wine certification textbooks – whew- I stopped in to visit Vic Herstein in the liquor store, as he was the keeper of the books, and then went to the The Cellar in the front to say hello to the new owner there, and teacher of my class, DiMaggio Washington.

Cathy Martin was also there to get her books. She was enjoying wine, so they poured me a little of what she had. I wine-profiled hers as an Italian wine right away, not from any nuances, just because I wanted to pretend that I could wine-profile a person. She’s Italian, hence the Italian wine guess. Nope, don’t even ask, I didn’t guess the variety.

Anyway, something else was poured into my glass, and it was remarkable. I had no way to take any notes about it then so I bought a bottle to share with my husband Eddie another time. That “other time” came after reading some of my new textbook.

2007 Pezzi King Zinfandel, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley. $25.99 (I paid) 15.4% alcohol.

The nose was a remarkable balance of cinnamon, mint, honey, eucalyptus…but most of that blew off far too quickly.

What remained in the mouth: a jammy blackberry/blueberry. Eddie found some strawberry as well.

I though it had a well-rounded mouthfeel (felt good in my mouth) and excellent balance.

Ten minutes later there was still a robust amount of fruit and spice, still balanced just right for my palate.

We shared this on the porch with my neighbor while our dinner was cooking. So I know we ate with the remaining wine, but I don’t recall what it was. I haven’t yet graduated to caring whether my wine is served with food or not. Maybe during chapter two…