1990 Lamborn Family Zinfandel “Howell Mountain”

A nice simple meal of some pizza called for a nice simple wine from the cellar. Well, I have some Zinfandels that I’ve been looking for an excuse to open. So I grab one, a ’90 Lamborn Family Zinfandel “Howell Mountain.” My original motivation to buy this bottle, lo, those many years ago, was a wonderful experience I had with a stash of ’80 Ridge Zin from the same place- those were just delicious. They might still be drinking well had I not polished off the last one nearly 10 years ago. Anyway, the LF version is not quite as happy-happy; a nuance of skunk-cabbage in the nose, screechingly tannic, flabby and disjoint acidity. But it still has some fruitiness, and holds together valiantly, going noisily into that long night. Air opened it up a bit, but it was never better than a Shemp.

SY (10/01)