The first time I went to Mazzocco, I was headed next door to Lytton Springs to taste some new wines they were pouring there called Ridge. Figured out pretty fast these folks made a BUNCH of incredible Zinfandels. Here I am almost 30 years later enjoying a 10YO Cab from them–something they hardly ever make.

Pitchy and extremely aromatic, still deep ruby with hardly any brick. Congestion-causing fruit steams out of the glass, black cherry and sweet tobacco working well with some sharp briar after a touch of bottle-funk blows off. 5 years ago, this wine needed 24 hrs to blossom–now it is doing it in 1 hour. Impenetrable even in the shallowest pour, the gravitas presented on the tongue requires a step back and 4D vision to comprehend. The robust fruit confection jammed onto you is comprehend-able only in conjecture. Acrid tannins still clawing their way through baby fat and churlish curls–an absolute demon being suppressed by a rainbow of blackberry piss and sweat, leather welts, bloodied concrete and a donut shop with refreshingly bad coffee at 2 AM. Can we smoke in here?

2009 MAZZOCCO Cabernet Sauvignon Dry Creek Valley Sonoma County 14.5

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