Rockpile Winery, Rockpile Ridge Vineyard Zinfandel, Rockpile

Rockpile Winery · California › Rockpile › United States of America

Red · Zinfandel

Critics

91 /100

Reviews

professional

Vintages

No vintages

No vintage-specific entries have been added for this wine.

Community Reviews

Reviews

90.5

Avg Score

Highest

Drunk way too young. Needs significantly more cellar time, certainly longer than 90-minute decant presently.

2022 vintage

Purple color with medium legs. Fruit bomb on the nose and palate. Blackberry jam, plum, cherry, toasted oak and vanilla. Medium velvety finish.

2022 vintage

This has always been the most generic of the Rockpile SVD Zins, but it still has that Rockpile fingerprint: Not over the top, more structured like a Bordeaux (it sees only French barrels these days), but still Zin. At 7+ years, it's just fine, and no reason to wait or to hurry. Dark berry fruit, I don't sense the cloying at all; a bit leafy, but mostly about the fruit and structure. At this stage, tannins have worn down to …

2014 vintage

Well made, but way too cloying for me. Too candied. Lots of dark sweet fruit, but nothing to add interest or depth. I'd say it's in its drinking window now. The tanins are smooth, but all there is is the cloying black fruit. Kind of a slurpee. Indeed, you could argue it's veering toward dessert wine. I give it a decent score because it's well made. Just light years from my taste.

2014 vintage

Decanted for 1 hr. Fruit was really subdued and didnt really open up. Maybe a longer decant would help. But going to drink my last bottle ASAP.

2014 vintage

Very solid zin. In the same church as the Ridge and J Cohn rockpiles, but not as full bodied. Still has bold integrated fruit minus a bit of the complexity.

2014 vintage

Very pleasant, maybe not as good as I remember but my expectations were high. Pleasant nose, didn't get the explosion of fruit on the back of the tongue like last time. Full bodied and not at all old.

2014 vintage

I don't really look forward to adding notes, but really really enjoyed this zin. This is after downing hundreds of Turleys, Carlisles, Bedrocks, Ridge .... This is delicious. Nose is lite and the initial impression (after about two hours of air) is a very lite refined almost pinot-esque wine. Then it absolutely explodes on the back of the tongue with complex rich fruit that is well-defined and structured. Fairly long finish. The experience was lost on the last few tablespoons …

2014 vintage

A nose of dark fruits and spices, dark garnet in color. A medium to full bodied single vineyard Zin, with blackberry, black cherry, Dr. Pepper, with just right amount of jam and cinnamon spice on long finish. www.winelx.com

2014 vintage

S: Clear, deep ruby core with medium staining N: Clean, medium+ intensity or red cherries, cloves, cocoa, black cherries, plums, prunes. Fruit is bright, but jammy. Appears a light use new oak aromas or cloves, baking spices. P: Dry, medium acid, medium + alcohol and body. Tannins are not a intense as I would have expected at med to barely medium+; texture is fine grained. Possibly the fine grain texture is down playing the tannins as the structure is there. …

2014 vintage

At first open, the noise is vanilla oak, biscuity/toasty, anise, plum, coco, black cherry and raspberry. On the palette, cherry, medium acid, soft but present tannins, long juicy finish. Day 2: Blackberry, leather, licorice on the nose. Similar palatte, but muted fruit and more oriented towards spice, leather, and other notes.

2014 vintage

Continues to be a solid zin The wine looks inky colored. The legs are medium. There is no sediment in the bottle. It smells like raisin, prune and dust. It tastes like black currant (cassis) and blackberry. The body is medium/full. The wine has smooth texture. The wine finishes medium. The wine has low acidity.

2014 vintage

Parker 93

2014 vintage

Terrific zin with ripe red fruits, spice and plenty of structure. Medium to full bodied, concentrated and not at all jammy.

2014 vintage

Lots of red fruit aromas. Doesn't come off as jammy or brambly at all on the nose. Baking spice and ripe red berry fruit nose. 6.9 acre vineyard at a 45 degree slope. Sun doesn't hit the vineyard until about 1pm in the afternoon. A very bright and almost partial carbonic element to the palate. Like some dissolved CO2. An orange zest note on the finish. 94WA.

2014 vintage

2016 ZAP Trade Tasting, nose of dark fruit, on the palate was disjointed for me as it showed it was a blend of different Rockpile Vineyard lots, medium/big body, simple, medium/long finish, not close to its siblings today.

2014 vintage