Winey Tasting Notes: ‘Tis the Season: Dracula Zinfandel

As the temperatures turn cooler, the wind picks up, the leaves begin to fall…what else would your mind turn to but: vampires? Did I mention the influence of my 15 year old daughter who has moved from Twilight (a member of both Team Edward and Team Jacob) to Vampire Diaries to heaven knows what next? It’s a vampire poster explosion on the walls of her room. I suppose it was inevitable that a bottle of Drac’s vino would fall into my possession this autumn.

Dracula Zinfandel is produced by, who else, Vampire Vineyards in Paso Robles, circa 2006 (oh good heavens I hope that means they bottled it then instead of, um, procuring it by other means). 13% alcohol and I’m not asking what else.

Dracula wasn’t messing around with this one. This is a full bodied, rich wine that is not for the faint of fang. The bouquet delivers pepper right away, and your first taste is of the pepper too. The oakey tannins linger afterwards and leave quite the pucker in your mouth. It begs to be paired with some huge, dramatic meal involving lots of red meat. It also begs the question: is that coffin he sleeps in made entirely of oak?

Buy it again? Well….I don’t really want to anger the vampires, but I’ll have to give this one a pass. I like my oaky-ness a little less up front, my tannins a little less bold…plus, I’m scared of vampires.

Side note:
I happened to try this wine with 4 other people. One of them was a wine lover who kept repeating the word “pepper” and had an odd look on her face the whole time. The other was a non-red wine drinker (hah!) who gave up after a few sips. One was a near non drinker who we are still making fun of. The fourth was a very nice lady who likes beer and still can’t figure it out. So as you can see, I pretty much had to go it alone on this one.