1974 Sterling Zinfandel Napa

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BJ
A great bottle. Worried about this at first as the cork was a bit loose. A bit of off putting pool water for the first while, but this disappated. Lots of interesting tertiaries of redwood, leather, smoke, round old fruit that kept evolving all the way to the end. A most enjoyable older wine. Classic winemaking all the way. Made me think of old Pic St. Loup or older Italian wine. Quite alive and a long ways from maderization - the kind of old wine that immediately grabs you.

Listed at 12% btw.

From the golden era of California.
 
originally posted by Brad L i l j e q u i s t:
1974 Sterling Zinfandel NapaA great bottle. Worried about this at first as the cork was a bit loose. A bit of off putting pool water for the first while, but this disappated. Lots of interesting tertiaries of redwood, leather, smoke, round old fruit that kept evolving all the way to the end. A most enjoyable older wine. Classic winemaking all the way. Made me think of old Pic St. Loup or older Italian wine. Quite alive and a long ways from maderization - the kind of old wine that immediately grabs you.

Listed at 12% btw.

From the golden era of California.
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Interesting note. That would have been a Ric Forman wine, I believe. Sterling was quite the spectacle in that era: a big white fortress atop the hill, reachable only by tram. Incredibly enough, they made some decent wine, too, before the sale to Seagram.

Mark Lipton
 
The numbers of stellar wines from vintage 1974 are countless, including Cabernets, Zins, Petite Sirahs.

We had a 2-day '74 retrospective not too long ago with 60+ wines. Truly remarkable, led by the legendary Mayacamas Cab and followed closely by Mondavi Reserve, Phelps Insignia, and so on.

If only California still made wines like during those days!
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

The numbers of stellar wines from vintage 1974 are countless, including Cabernets, Zins, Petite Sirahs.

We had a 2-day '74 retrospective not too long ago with 60+ wines. Truly remarkable, led by the legendary Mayacamas Cab and followed closely by Mondavi Reserve, Phelps Insignia, and so on.
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That sounds like a great event. What's often overlooked with the hooplpa surrounding '74 is that '73 was a perhaps greater year with wines that in many cases were longer lived than their '74 counterparts.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

The numbers of stellar wines from vintage 1974 are countless, including Cabernets, Zins, Petite Sirahs.

We had a 2-day '74 retrospective not too long ago with 60+ wines. Truly remarkable, led by the legendary Mayacamas Cab and followed closely by Mondavi Reserve, Phelps Insignia, and so on.

If only California still made wines like during those days!
Click to expand...

That sounds dandy.

I'm going to sound real ignorant - who is Ric Forman? John Gilman mentioned he made wine at Sterling from 74 and 76 and it meant nothing to me.
 
Ric Forman was the winemaker at Sterling, went on to layout the vineyards at Newton, and then founded his own winery, called Forman. The Forman winery has been known for long ageing Chardonnay and Cabernet.
 
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