Inkwell Infidel 2010 aka Primitivo

Infidel [in-fi-dl,del]
noun
A person who has no faith; unbeliever

That's what Dudley has called this 2010 Primitivo (or as I prefer, Zinfandel), and whoever doesn't believe Zin can make great wines is indeed an infidel. A quick grape variety lesson here, Zinfandel and Primitivo are indeed the same grape. Read more about them on wikipedia if you're interested. I'm calling it Zin for the rest of this article BTW.

I first sought out Dudley because he was growing Zin in McLaren Vale. I had first tried Zinfandel in Napa Valley 15+ years ago at Cline Cellars in the Sonoma Valley, and I was blown away. I've been randomly searching for a local version of similar style for a long time, but it's just not a popular variety in Australia, possibly because it's pretty hard to grow.

My search has ended. This 2010 Zinfandel is brilliant.

In June I spent 3 weeks in Hawaii, and surprisingly there is actually a pretty good selection of Zins if you take the time to find the specialty wine shops. I reckon I tried two dozen Zins hunting for what my taste memory said I should expect from this grape, and I got close with a few but nothing that blew me away. What I found was many lacked complexity, such that after one glass I was ready to move on. That may well be my ignorant palate when it comes to Zin because I wasn't buying the cheap ones, well mostly not anyway.

This Infidel though, well lets just say I had to tell my wife off twice for trying to steal another glass of it - I was trying to save some of the bottle for day 2 to get a bit of an idea how it might go longer term. BTW, the answer is it's impressively even better today and sadly not enough left in the bottle for my liking either.

I'm not even going to attempt to describe it in detail, but I can say it's fruit forward, silky smooth tannins, perfectly balanced acid and flippin more-ish.

There's unfortunately very few bottles of it, and there's now at least one less than there was.

I rate it Excellent. And in my somewhat limited but enthusiastic search it's the best Zin I've ever had.

http://www.inkwellwines.com/Inkwell/Primitivo.html

PS. the label print is done as a eyesight focus/sobriety test, but I had no trouble reading the word "INKWELL" so I reckon I'm fine. (you'll understand my waffle when you get a bottle)

PPS. US consumers will be buying this under screwcap cos only an Infidel would think cork is better.