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
Wondering how much new oak is on these wines and for how long?
It looks like the Merlot is the only
“Estate” wine included in the offer - is that correct?
Thanks.
If you look at the picture, all four are the “Estate” wines.
These 4 are $106 from the winery. Not quite 50%…
You are true.
Here are the results from the Chronicle tasting.
The Select Merlot, which won the Best of Class, is apparently NOT the Merlot included in this offer. Some confusion on CT.
Jason-Stephens Winery 434 - Syrah/Shiraz - $30.00 to $39.99 2007 Santa Clara County Estate Select Syrah $36.00 Silver
Jason-Stephens Winery 444 - Merlot - $25.00 to $29.99 2007 Santa Clara Valley Estate Merlot $28.00 Silver
Jason-Stephens Winery 445 - Merlot - $30.00 to $39.99 2007 Santa Clara Valley Estate Select Merlot $38.00 Best of Class
Jason-Stephens Winery 453 - Cabernet Sauvignon - $25.00 to $29.99 2007 Santa Clara Valley Estate Cabernet Sauvignon $28.00 Bronze
I’m in!
Jason Stephens Winery Estate - 4 Pack Sampler
Current numbers (updated each minute)
First sucker: mill
Speed to first woot: 1m 51.540s
Last wooter to woot: divadrabnud
In for 1. Looks interesting.
Dried goji berry? Really?
At least they’re using taste comparisons we can all relate to.
ALL of the wines are Estate!
We use between 20%-30% new oak.
Jason-Stephens Winery Awards
Above is a link to our website that has a complete list of awards on the wines. At the better wine competitions a gold represents the judges ideas of the top 10%, a silver is the next 15% and a bronze is generally the next 25%. This varies though from wine competition to wine competition as do the judges opinions as you will notice! I guess if I was responsible for tasting 80+ wines a day for 2-4 days straight my palate would have trouble too! Still it would be fun.
Hope this helps - Jason
Yes, it is not quite 50% discount. These are not closeout wines, distressed inventory or anything of the nature. These 4 wines are our current, hot releases which are selling well and helping us gain national distribution. Our normal pricing is lower than what we think it should but I always want wine lovers to feel as if they get value at every price point, and that is at full retail. - Jason
I’m very new to wines, never had anything you might concider a ‘good’ wine. What do you all think - this sampler pack a good place to start? What types would you suggest to someone new to wines? Thanks!
I was in a similar position a year or so ago and jumped in on a sampler - and I haven’t stopped buying since.
I’d say go for it - just make sure to set up your account in CellarTracker and to keep track of whether you liked the wine or not (i.e., “Would I buy this again?”).
So how do you manage the tannins in these wines? Do you fine or remove the skins early in the fermentation process? If you fine, what do you use?
Getting this for my sister and relying on my parents to hide it from her until her birthday (she turns 21 at the end of the month).
I go to Jason Stephens monthly or so, being in the area. My wife and I joined their club a year or so ago, because we like their wines so much. All of these are quite nice, and at $16.75 each, they are considerably discounted from even what I pay with my club member discount. You won’t go wrong with this purchase.
Gaylon
Samplers from Woot are where I started, and now I’ve become the person in my family everyone looks at when it’s time to pick a wine. So I’ve got to endorse the idea.
That said, I’m still passing. No disrespect to Mr. Stephens, but “this isn’t a hot wine” is what the winemaker said the last two times I gave high alcohol wines a chance, and I regretted it both times. That combined with disliking virtually all of the 14.5%+ Syrahs I’ve ever had and having mixed feelings on the high alcohol Zinfandels I’ve tried still leaves me cold. I mean, I’ve enjoyed one at 15.8 quite a bit, but also felt like it was maximizing intensity, so the idea of pushing it a whole 1% higher still just doesn’t seem like it’s likely to be my thing.
Still, one ought take the awards at face value. Some people like this style of wine much more than the lower ABV, more restrained stuff I prefer, and I’m sure look at wines I like and scoff at the numbers. All the same, this offering seems to be at an extreme in terms of style. It makes me a little cautious of recommending it as a first exposure to “good” wine, but on the other hand, it’s not like any single offering can ever be an ideal introduction to “good” wine. If you’re curious, try it. Just remember, whether you like it or not, it appears to be very much at an extreme of style.
Very good question. We have invested in an automated sorting system that does whole berry destemming which is very gentle on the berries and leaves the seeds in the pulp longer during fermentation, which I believe harsher tannins come from (there is debate about this, but I have noticed a major differance). We also use an automated cap management system during fermenation. So rather than using a pump (that tears the berries apart) we use air to “mix” the fermentation tanks. This is super gentle which helps also with the seeds in the pulp of the grape longer as well.
The air that breaks of the cap (where the skins raise to the top of the tank and we want to mix to get full extraction) is located about 15" of the bottom of the tank. So the air bubbles that break the cap orginate above the seed bed at the bottom of the tank when the seed to get exposed. With traditional pumpovers the seeds are general ran through a pump that breaks them out of pulp or shears them to make harsher tannins.
That is my viewpoint on how we arrive at high levels of tannins, that are much smoother. I don’t like to fine as I feel that stripes the wine. We like to do everything we can to preserve the natural tannins in the grapes.
I hope that answers your question. Its almost 9am at the winery, about time to start working on some blends and sampling some wines.
Cheers! - Jason
Jason … can I ask what you’re doing differently? I’m not doubting you, just asking because your description flies in the face of every other high alcohol zin I’ve personally tasted.
I can’t speak to the other wineries’ practices and this is my first Zinfandel release so what I do know is our vineyard practices are different. The trellis is on a quadalateral and the way Steve pays attention to the vineyard and vine health he just seems more in tune with what’s going on. The higher alcohol comes from a higher sugar convertion ratio to alcohol. With our fermentation practices this wine just didn’t come out “hot” tasting. The higher residual sugar probably helps a lot with that as well not to mention the beginning flavors of brighter, red fruit.
If we break profile preferances into men and women, I would say in general (let me be very clear that this is a generality) women seem to enjoy smoother, softer tannins and wines without the heat on the finish. Since we released this Zin a few months back, the women in the tasting room are loving it. This is currently the #1 selling wine in the tasting room, and the #1 wine in that tasting room sold to women. Given in general women purchase more wine then women, I would suspect that the #1 selling wine in the tasting room was also #1 with women.
In short - sometimes I’m not exactly sure how everything came together and turned our and why our wines keep dispelling myths but I am sure I am going to keep on this same path because it is working!
Thanks for another great questions - Jason