Price: $9.79 at Total Wine

Style: The “Tom” (Medium body and power with some interesting tastes beyond basic fruits.)

Rating: “Ok”

Recommendation: “Have a glass or two”

Review:

Meh… average to good for the price. A medium nose carries strong candied red fruit with some baking spices… enjoyable. In the mouth, this is smooth but too sweet on the mid-palate for me.  If you’re into sweeter versions of Zinfandel, you’d likely rate this one a bit higher than I did. A bit of spice kicks in with the mid-palate and then it closes with a drier and more tannic finish at the very end.

Winemakers’s notes:

• Alluring, easy-drinking Zin with vivid California flavors of fruit and spice, made for everyday enjoyment.
• Peppery characteristic creates distinctive, complex flavor profile.

Sourced from ‘old vines’ in Amador County and cooler vineyards in Paso Robles and Sonoma, our Zinfandel has exceptional depth and complexity. Petite Sirah is blended in to further enhance the luscious strawberry jam, cassis and briar flavors that follow its perfume of dark fruit, sweet spice and toasty vanilla.

https://www.francisfordcoppolawinery.com/en/our-wines/diamond-collection/zinfandel

More info:

Coppola Winery is owned by none other than the famed movie director, Francis Ford Coppola (IMDB summary of Coppola’s film career).  He purchased portions of the historically important Inglenook vineyard in 1975 with  profits from The Godfather and spent the next 30 years bringing the estate back to it’s former glory.

The make a wide variety of wines with the flagship wines using grapes sourced from the legendary estate vineyards.  https://www.francisfordcoppolawinery.com/en/our-wines 

Unfortunately, The Diamond Collection, including our Red Label Zinfandel, do not get access to the Inglenook fruit and are, instead, sourced from across California.  So, the Diamond Collection may provide some good daily drinkers, but they won’t hold a candle to the estate wines.