Jason-Stephens Estate Zinfandel
$47.99 + $5 shipping
CONDITION: Red
PRODUCT: 3 2008 Jason-Stephens Estate Zinfandel, Santa Clara Valley
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Previous offer:
7/5/11

From the previous offering, Winemaker Jason comments this is their first year for a Zin, and continues:

Amazingly this is a pretty fruity Zinfandel with pronounced strawberry flavors and great acidity. It only tastes sweat for the first second in the mouth then it develops into a complex Zin with smooth tannins, a touch of oak that both fill the mouth. You will be suprised. I recommend this wine now through the next 2 years - but I am laying some down for sure to see how it develops of the next 10-15 years! I am a very young wine maker so I get to experiment with the aging of wines for years to come. Enjoy! Jason

Sweat, sure hope he meant sweet!

So that would make this now approaching it's prime?

I'm in based solely on previous wines I have purchased from them on Woot. Their Merlot and Cab are excellent!

Current numbers (updated each minute)
First sucker: isis0013
Speed to first woot: 5m 15.520s
Last wooter to woot: bolligra

Their 2007 Cabernet and Merlot are fantastic. After well over 50 wine woots they are definitely in my Wine Woot top five.

If their Zinfandel is anywhere near as good I am in for the max.

Can anyone comment on the previous Zinfandel offering?

I do need some Zinfandel, and I have not been disappointed in my prior Jason-Stephen's woots. In for two.

For the winery ... please discuss how you moderate what must be a significant amount of heat from 16.8% alcohol

The cab and Merlot were excellent!

I promise you won't notice much heat from this Zin on the Alc. It is super well balanced given the acidity, tannins, and fruit. Bright red fruits flavors over the many raisiny/pruney Zin on the market

Thanks again Woot community for all of the support. I have received so much positive feedback from the wine lovers on wine.woot about our Cab/Merlot offer. If you are a Zin fan this wine will deliver. Received a DOUBLE GOLD at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition 2012(largest wine comp. in the world). This happens to be the best selling wine out of our tasting room right now as well. I hope you enjoy this as much as the Cab/Merlot combo pack we did last month. Cheers! Jason

vannknight wrote:The cab and Merlot were excellent!

THANKS for the positive feedback! The Merlot is some of the winery staff's favorite.

inod3 wrote:I do need some Zinfandel, and I have not been disappointed in my prior Jason-Stephen's woots. In for two.

THANKS!!!!

My Zin stores are a bit depleted, so I'm excited to try some of this.

I was reading through the previous woot comments and noticed quite the trend of leaky corks in the shipments.

Linke: http://wine.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?PostID=4539835

Can the winery please comment a bit on that? I've never had a leaky seal on a bottle, but is it something you were able to address? Were these a different bottled lot or should we be prepared for more leaking with these?

Got a bottle of this as part of a four pack from woot last year. Still holding the cab, but the others were really good. The zin wasn't hot even with the high alcohol. Full bodied, but balanced. I'm going back for more.

I've enjoyed several white wines, but I'm still looking for a red that I'll actually like. I tend to prefer wines on the sweeter side. I was fortune enough to have had the Woot Cellars Vinito del Finito late harvest zin and that was quite enjoyable.

Can anyone please chime in about how sweet, semisweet, or dry this particular zin is? Thanks in advance.

coolchris160 wrote:I've enjoyed several white wines, but I'm still looking for a red that I'll actually like. I tend to prefer wines on the sweeter side. I was fortune enough to have had the Woot Cellars Vinito del Finito late harvest zin and that was quite enjoyable.

Can anyone please chime in about how sweet, semisweet, or dry this particular zin is? Thanks in advance.

The residual sugar (sweetness) on this Zin is a little more than normal. So it hits the palate sweet, but finishes with a nice structured tannin and acidity finish. I really think you will enjoy the wine

Cyradia wrote:My Zin stores are a bit depleted, so I'm excited to try some of this.

I was reading through the previous woot comments and noticed quite the trend of leaky corks in the shipments.

Linke: http://wine.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?PostID=4539835

Can the winery please comment a bit on that? I've never had a leaky seal on a bottle, but is it something you were able to address? Were these a different bottled lot or should we be prepared for more leaking with these?

I can't seem to find what you a referring to anywhere on woot or through you link. Nor have I heard of any problems.

rlmanzo wrote:Their 2007 Cabernet and Merlot and fantastic. After well over 50 wine woots they are definitely in my Wine Woot top five.

If their Zinfandel is anywhere near as good I am in for the max.

Can anyone comment on the previous Zinfandel offering?

Thank you! I am glad you really enjoyed the wines!

jasonstephenswinery wrote:I can't seem to find what you a referring to anywhere on woot or through you link. Nor have I heard of any problems.

I think this is where Cyradia was referring:
http://wine.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?PostID=4539835&PageIndex=2&ReplyCount=61#post4566460

I have been to this winery a couple times and I have always been pleasantly surprised by the quality and drinkability of the wines.

I ordered the 07 Cab and Merlot last woot offering. If this Zin is similar in quality to those wines you wooters will be very happy with this offering. The wine I received can only be classified as exceptional. These folks know what they're doing. We had a wine tasting party and the above mentioned wines were rated from 88-92 by the guests.

neilfindswine wrote:Welcome Jason! One of my very first wine finds for Woot, Jason Stephens wines have been quite popular here...

Pleasure to be here! Thanks again!

neilfindswine wrote:I believe these few incidents were isolated; as far as I know we didn't have a spike in emails to service@woot.com (that said, if anyone has any issues like that you can always use that email address).

Wow. That was 4 different posts about what appeared to be cork problems on the wines. I've never seen anything like that on Woot before. I don't know that emails to service should be the thing to raise an eyebrow when you have the posts one after the other right there in the forum about the problem. What constitutes an isolated incident?

jasonstephenswinery wrote:The residual sugar (sweetness) on this Zin is a little more than normal. So it hits the palate sweet, but finishes with a nice structured tannin and acidity finish. I really think you will enjoy the wine

What is the actual residual sugar?

I'm sure you'll find an audience for this wine - many people like high alcohol wines made with fruit that has been allowed to hang until the sugars are 28 Brix or so - but, I confess it's not a style I appreciate.

Given that winemakers in California could achieve phenolic ripeness at 23 Brix or so for a century and more, making dry table wines with 12-13% alcohol, which were capable of aging for 10, even 20-40 years, gaining complexity and depth, what is the purpose of expensive wines that are as alcoholic as Port or sherry and will be lucky to survive five years?

neilfindswine wrote:If it was widespread, we would have heard about it beyond those posts... 4 bottles out of over 3,200 Jason Stephens bottles we've moved is isolated, IMHO. Since it seems to have only happened on that particular JS offer and not subsequent, I suspect it might have occurred during transit...

We certainly take quality issues like this seriously, and address if/when they arise.

I would have to agree that this must have happened during transit as we have never heard of a problem like this at the winery.

In for one to support sustainable wineries.

Based on the comments, in for one! Should be a nice wine to enjoy this summer.

rpm wrote: what is the purpose of expensive wines that are as alcoholic as Port or sherry and will be lucky to survive five years?

What's the purpose of expensive wines that can age for 10 or 20 or 40 years?

I'm guessing the answer to the question I asked is "enjoyment." That would be the answer to your question, as well. The purpose of wine is enjoyment. And people enjoy different things.

I'm not buying this wine, and I certainly didn't buy the 4.14 pH wine yesterday, but that doesn't mean that these wines are purposeless, which is exactly what your question insinuates.

kylemittskus wrote:What's the purpose of expensive wines that can age for 10 or 20 or 40 years?

I'm guessing the answer to the question I asked is "enjoyment." That would be the answer to your question, as well. The purpose of wine is enjoyment. And people enjoy different things.

I'm not buying this wine, and I certainly didn't buy the 4.14 pH wine yesterday, but that doesn't mean that these wines are purposeless, which is exactly what your question insinuates.

Actually, I don't mean to insinuate anything - I'd genuinely like to hear from the people who make wines like this what they're trying to achieve; why they think the style is superior to the wines that evolved from the late middle ages through the last quarter of the 20th century.

In for one. Traditional is good, but traditional I've had. I'm always looking for a new or 'different' Zinfandel to try and this sounds intriguing. I never thought I'd like a Zin with Port until the InZINerator I found via Wine.Woot, so I may just discover another favorite with this purchase. Here's hoping!



Current numbers (updated each minute)
First sucker: isis0013
Speed to first woot: 5m 15.520s
Last wooter to woot: parkermc

rpm wrote:Actually, I don't mean to insinuate anything - I'd genuinely like to hear from the people who make wines like this what they're trying to achieve; why they think the style is superior to the wines that evolved from the late middle ages through the last quarter of the 20th century.

Your "genuine" question is as confrontational, or seems to be with just text on a page, as your last. Why does superiority need to enter the discussion? Why better or worse and not just different? If everyone was making the same style of wine, then there wouldn't be as many people interested in wine since not everyone likes the same style. Obviously I'm not a wine maker, of this wine nor any other. But as a consumer, I rather appreciate the "spice of life" the wine world offers.

Not impressed with my last Zin purchase, I have learned not to buy anything but, Cab's and Merlot's

fredrinaldi wrote:Not impressed with my last Zin purchase, I have learned not to buy anything but, Cab's and Merlot's

What was your last zin purchase?

As others have said, they blew me away with their Cab/Merlot offering in February - I'm in for 2 based on that experience alone!

Current numbers (updated each minute)
First sucker: isis0013
Speed to first woot: 5m 15.520s
Last wooter to woot: sdilullo

jasonstephenswinery wrote:The residual sugar (sweetness) on this Zin is a little more than normal. So it hits the palate sweet, but finishes with a nice structured tannin and acidity finish. I really think you will enjoy the wine

Hi,

I am a member of the Zin Club of Rombauer.
And if you have had their zin, you know how sweet (and tannic) it tastes.

I am wondering how is your zin compared to Rombauer's, sweetness-wise?

Thanks,
Rudy

Even though I have too much zin at the moment, I must break my SIZBM for this. Their cab and merlot are both exquisite, and I expect this to be just as enjoyable. Still waiting for the four-pack I bought during the woot-off to ship. So much good wine one the way!!

I received these bad boys today and popped one open tonight. I was astonished how delicious it was. I'm trying to learn more about wine and distinguish between different styles. Would this be characterized as being fruity?