Winey Tasting Notes: Tin Roof..not the Sundae, the Wine

I give you proof that my family is made from ice cream. This is the FIRST place the Winey Hubby and Winey Daughter went upon boarding our cruise ship this past Spring break. We hadn’t even left port yet.

I am a loner in the Winey Household. At least, I stand alone when it comes to the ice cream gene. It seems that this gene was passed directly down from the Winey Hubby to the two Winey Children. It is a gene he inherited from his Winey Family, since 4 of the 5 siblings worked at an ice cream stand during their teenage years. (To this day, The Hubby waxes poetic about the free ice cream he got to take home each night. My cooking has never, ever been on the end of such a review from him. Hmph.)

So in my household, I alone can look at a tub/cone/waffle filled with ice cream and not start drooling. I don’t automatically grab a spoon and a jar of sprinkles. I can just look…and walk away. But not them. Oh no. They are all genetically programmed to head toward any ice cream stand we pass (the same goes for frozen yogurt, which they tell me is the same gene pool). It usually isn’t a problem. I say usually because when most of your family bleeds vanilla, chocolate or strawberry, they tend to get kind of picky about the thickness of their milkshakes, the style of the little twirl at the top of their soft serve cone or the amount of fudge on the sundae.  I still cringe at the time the Winey Hubby and I were driving to Florida with his sister.  On one gas break, we went into an ice cream parlor in Georgia and they proceeded to instruct the unsuspecting teens behind the counter on how to make their shakes: they must be thick enough…but not too thick. Oh puhleeze! I was embarrassed for them. And me. I was absolutely embarrassed for me.

photo courtesy of Tin Roof Cellars

That’s not to say that I don’t have my own sugar laden demons (hello, jelly beans and really good milk chocolate). It’s just that ice cream is not one of them. Which is why I got such a kick out of seeing a bottle of wine from Tin Roof Cellars. Here was a version of tin roof that I could dig into. No peanuts and hot fudge here. Just a nice bottle of Zinfandel from Lodi, California, one of my favorite Zinfandel producing regions!

The nose on Tin Roof Zinfandel (2011, 13.5%, Lodi, CA) is full of grape jam with a touch of dark green spices and black pepper.  The taste began with sharp sour cherry and a hint of oak. There was some peppery flavors on the end of it as well. It finished up with some drying tannins and a bit of bacon wood flavor.

To be honest, this wine was just not as rich and velvety as I’d hoped. Maybe I’ve been setting my standards a bit high as far as Lodi Zinfandels are concerned. I’ve had some AMAZING ones (see my Fields Family Old Vine Zinfandel and D’Art Zinfandel reviews) but I just can’t go that far with my description of Tin Roof.  It was just … there. Nothing outstanding, nothing to wow over…just a bottle of red wine.

I’m going to go with a resounding, “It’s OK” on this one. And oddly enough, that is exactly how I would describe ice cream. Don’t judge. It’s just not in my genetic make up. However, if you test my blood for jelly beans, well….that’s another story.

Cheers!