Stuart Cellars Zinfandel Vintner's Special Select Reserve Unfiltered Lopez Ranch

Harsh. Even several days later it was very rough. Did not finish.

Cork had leaked all the way through, and the wine was definitely not drinkable.

After finding a bad bottle, I went ahead and popped the other bottle I had of this wine. I don't think this one's gone off, but it's just kind of loud and vaguely syrupy. Noticing the heat a little, but more noticing the fruit-bomb-y nature. I did decant this, and the second glass, two-plus hours after opening, is much the same.

Consistent with my previous write-up ... a very nice zin that is way too hot on first approach. It drinks wonderfully after about an hour open & the heat blows off.

Jammy upfront with bold tannins and some spice; Almost like a merlot; Buy again: Maybe

As others had mentioned, popped and poured and was rather hot on the nose as well as on the palate. At 16.5% abv, I suppose it's not too surprising. As the night wore on, the heat did subside a bit, but was probably almost as prominent as the others flavors of the wine. Some hints of red berries, some oak, but seemed to be a bit mute perhaps to the alcohol. Finish was ok with a decent amount of relatively …

Cork showed leakage, which was surprising because I don't know of any time it could have been exposed to high temps. Clear deep purple-garnet. Muted nose of raspberry, cedar, and pepper. Upon tasting, the fruit was MIA - just 2x4 licking and leathery tannins. Surprisingly not much heat, and a shortish finish. Not undrinkable, but either it's damaged, way too young, or not that good.

Had strawberries and strong licorice which I could barely taste that through the alcohol at first. After being surprised by the first sip, I looked at the label and saw 16.5% ABV. It took quite a while to mellow out, but it did. I'd recommend opening and pouring/decanting this one several hours before drinking. It went pretty well with a steak and charcoal-grilled vegetables.

Review written for Wine.Woot labrat report: "So, The Divine Miss Wendy and I are just back (i.e. we landed late last night) from my work trip to Las Cruces, New Mexico. TDMW came out for the last 5 days of a 10 day jaunt to see the beautiful desert southwest where I had lived for a period in the mid-90's. So we are fairly up to speed on our spicy food quotient... which didn't stop us from getting take-out thai …