Artezin 2004
Price: $13
Maker: Artezin Wines, Napa, California
Varietal: Zinfandel
Packaging: 750 ml bottle, natural cork
Alcohol: 14.5%
Our Rating: 9 out of 10
Artezin 2004 Zinfandel is our kind of wine. We admit to being prejudiced toward big, bold Zins, and Artezin is one. The nose is nice but unexceptional, mostly the expected berries and spice. On the palate, though, this wine is smooth, rich, and deep… jammy plum, cherry, and blackberry combine with black pepper, woody notes, and soft tannins to produce surprising complexity and a lengthy finish. There’s a hint of fruity sweetness, though no more so than for a typical Zin.
Artezin Wines is part of the Hess Group - they have a limited range of wines, just making Zinfandel, Petite Syrah, and Carignan. This particular Zinfandel has grapes from Mendocino County (58%), Sonoma County (25%), and Amador County(17%).
The WineAss blog wasn’t nearly as impressed, scoring it a mere 3 out of 5 and summarizing, “Art is Out.” The Sacramento Bee commented, “the Artezin went well with the tri-tip not so much for its juicy fruit, which it did have, but for its solid structure and its ample weight, all of which danced gracefully with the richness of the beef. On its own, the wine, which includes 6 percent petite sirah, carries a note of white and black pepper to spice up its gentle blackberry and raspberry fruitiness.” Bigger Than Your Head called Artezin a cheapie that “should satisfy just about any palate.”
Artezin certainly satisfied OUR palate. If you like big, smooths Zins, give Artezin 2004 a try.
Add this post to: del.icio.us - Digg it - Stumble it - Furl - Yahoo MyWeb
March 15th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
[...] My selection criteria here is pretty much the same as normal for more traditionally packaged wines. I look for recommendations and then pick something I find the most interesting from the store’s selection. Roger has quite a few suggestions at his blog and I found some other recommendations at the San Francisco Chronicle. A scan of the box wine aisle at the stoer I went to turned up dozens of choices, but the most popular were the generics from Franzia and Almaden (mango sangria, anyone?). Of the more “high end” choices I debated between a Hardy’s Riesling or Shiraz-Grenache but held off since they were a full 3 liters and I didn’t need that much cooking wine should it be not my style. That is the root of the challenge here for me and I suspect for a lot of people; we don’t want to take a chance on buying this much wine we might not like. Perhaps that’s the genius of Roger’s theme here… we’ll certainly get a lot of interesting wines to try or avoid [...]
July 10th, 2008 at 10:07 am
7/10/2008
Can you please tell me how/where I might be able to purchase a case of Almaden Mango and/or Raspberry Sangria 5 Liter Box either in-person, by mail or online. Several local wine and liquor stores have informed me that their distributors are no longer carrying the product and were uncertain as to whether Almaden or any other winery is still producing it.
I live in southern Berkshire County in western Massachusetts.
Thank you.
Email dickhopp@adelphia.net