Ham, Peeps And Zinfandel.

Ok, I didn’t have any peeps with  my wine, but I did have one (or two) during the course of Easter Sunday.  it was a good day:  lot’s-o-food, lots of baseball in Hi-def, and some good wine.

Mom-in-law and grandma-in-law came over and took over the kitchen.  The oven was a-blazin’ and the house smelled good.. kinda like Easter I guess.

Ham was the main course, complete with a thick, sweet glaze.  Because of that glaze, I chose the 2005 Mueller “Old Vine” Russian River Valley Zinfandel to wash down the ham.

I noticed the wine’s nice garnet color as I poured it into the glass.  I got nice scent of spicy plums and blueberries as I brought the glass up to my nose.  I took a nice, big sip and tasted gobs of ripe blackberries, and then tasted the undertones of coffee and spice.  A good finish with a nice, velvety mouth feel.   It handled the ham and it’s glaze like a champ.

The thing about Zinfandels is they are often big and jammy, and I find the good zins result from a deft wine maker coming in and wrestling away the jammy edge.  The Mueller was definitely moving in that direction, the jaminess was muted fairly well.  Stephen Tanzer gave the wine a 90.

After dinner, I took my glass back to the living room and watched the Cubs/Brewers game.  Life was good.