It took me nearly two months, but I succeeded in tasting the 2005 Lucas Winery ZinStar, a sought-after $30 Lodi zinfandel that grower and winemaker David Lucas produces year after year.
If you remember back to mid-October, I explained the misfortune that befell my wife and me. Her illness was caught in time, although we both missed the premiere of the 2005 ZinStar.
Lucas pulled the wine for us from the spot on the special shelf at his winery tasting room last week. He asked me to judge it objectively. Known not to mince words, I responded, “It’s classy and elegant for a zinfandel because of its medium body.”
“Yes,” he said, “and that’s why it won’t win any awards, except that my wine club members (the only people other than us to taste it) have been buying it in cases.”
I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings; however, the 2005 Lucas ZinStar isn’t Lucas’ best achievement in transforming Lodi zinfandel into the equivalent of a Santa Rita Hills pinot noir or a Stag’s Leap cabernet sauvignon.
The 2005 ZinStar is very good, but not great. It has a layered bouquet of cranberry, raspberry, clove, plum, white pepper and French oak flavors with subtle, silky tannins after spending 12 months in barrels and another two years in the bottle.
The only flaw is that this wine is ready to be enjoyed now, not in 2009, when it becomes available to the general public. Will it have the same exceptional characteristics? Lucas thinks it will have them through the next decade.
The real stunner, though, is the 2005 Lucas Winery Chardonnay ($29), which inadvertently was not released at Lucas’s “Great Chefs of the San Joaquin” party in October. Winemaker-grower Heather Pyle, Lucas’s wife — who, it just so happens, was running in a marathon in Las Vegas that weekend — has proven again that Lodi can produce first-class chardonnays about which even the French would rave.
From three vineyards in a 2-mile radius of the Lucas winery, the wine was split, with 25 percent housed in neutral French oak barrels for seven months. This gives the wine structure and intensifies its flavors without overpowering it.
Because the acids are crisp, the 2005 Lucas Chardonnay exudes citrus and Pippin apple flavors. I discovered a warm, butter taste at mid-palate and more apples in the finish. Most importantly, Pyle was able to string all the sensations together, showing the wine taster a path to elegance.
Lucas reaffirmed my thoughts by adding, “Heather believes this is the best chardonnay she’s ever made in Lodi.”
I don’t doubt those words.
• The Lucas Winery, 18196 N. Davis Road, in Lodi, is open for tastings from noon to 4:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday and by appointment Wednes-days and Thursdays. For information: 368-2006 or www.lucaswinery.com.
Wine Notes
• Meet the Winemaker — Mokelumne Glen Winery will pour two samplings in addition to three other Lodi wines; noon to 4 p.m.; Saturday and Dec. 16; Lodi Wine and Visitor Center, 2545 W. Turner Road, in Lodi; $5; 365-0621.
• Holiday Wine Tasting — Paul Dolan Wines, 4 to 7 p.m., Wednesday; Benziger Family Wines, 4 to
8 p.m., Friday; Mumm Cuvee, 3 to 6 p.m., Saturday; Domaine Chandon, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Dec. 16; Grgich Hills, 2 to 5 p.m., Dec. 18; Chalk Hill Wines, 5 to 8 p.m., Dec. 19; Safeway, 4495 First St., in Livermore; no charge; 925-467-2807.
• To reach Jack Eddy about his column, Cheers from the Vineyard, call him at 830-4233, fax to 835-0655 or send an e-mail to: jwe@tracypress.com.
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