Alcohol Name: Cline Ancient Vines Zinfandel

Alcohol Type: Zinfandel

Alcohol Content: 15%, 30 Proof

Price Point: Low-Mid Bracket, $12, order online at Ancient Vines Series

Nose: Top five max

Flavor Profile: Top five max

Bottom Line: A high-quality budget wine that provides berries, spice, and leather. The flavor profiles change from year to year, which can be a fun and engaging experience.

The Ancient Vines wines all come from California. Cline offers many kinds of wine and has membership options as well. Their Zinfandel is the only wine I have seen and tasted in my area, but I am sure they have other options depending on the region. 

To start, this Zinfandel is very bold. It comes off very strong with fifteen percent alcohol, which for a wine is on the higher end. When I did my tasting of this wine, I used a bit of an unconventional method. For my tasting I actually used an entire wine flight board of glasses. I could tell that the flavors and aromas were changing from glass to glass. I could have used a decanter, but I had new and unused glasses to break in.

The nose of this wine got better over the period of my tasting. It was full of berries, spice, and leather with a flavor that was very similar. The vanilla was very apparent due to the use of new and used oak barrels in the aging process. Hints of blueberry were subtle and not overly sweet. The finish was all chocolate and delightful.

I primarily pick up this wine when it is on sale. For the price, I think this is a quality wine. The years of this wine are very important to pay attention to. This tasting was of their 2017. Other years of their Zinfandel have very different profiles. 

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