Thank you for your patronage! Happy Holidays to you and your friends.
Dan F.
While the blend percentages are similar to those of Pomerol and St Emilion, the decision to go with a Merlot based blend was wholly due to the vineyard. RRV Merlot is rare. It is difficult to ripen unless yields are lowered significantly which makes it expensive to produce. We feel that the end product merits the work however and thus the “Milestone” was born. It was developped to commemorate the 75th year the Pellegrinis have been in the wine business!
Take off that Richard costume, NightGhost! 
It may not be as well known as the Pinot and Chard, but try a 6 or 7 year old bottle of Limerick Lane Old Vines Zin or Papapietro Perry Russian River Zin and see what you think of it…
He’s not a Hobbit, dopey. That’s a picture of one of those boring Humans. They can’t cook and they certainly can’t dance like a Hobbit!
Mmmm, less jammy, deeper, structured Zins?
Fail! 
In for 1. From the discussion here it sounds awesome! I did not want to miss out. Thanks for offering this to us at a great price.
Sad, but true - two left feet. But I can do things with a sword that no hobbit can.
will search them out and give them a try…would you say these are less jammy/fruit forward? price range? I prefer my Zins bold, jammy, and fruit forward, e.g. Woodenhead, Bella, Wilson, Dutcher Crossing…
Steve Heimoff posted this almost a year ago…
A Bordeaux blend, it’s quite shut down in tannins now, and not showing its best despite impressively ripe, rich blackberries, black cherries, currants and touches of chocolate, dried herbs and tobacco. Needs time. Give it through 2010, and it could blossom impressively beyond that. — S.H. (12/15/2009)
Even in a closed state his notes are very positive. We now have that additional year in bottle to allow the tannins to integrate further into the blend. This could be very good timing for us. 
I agree completely. Thanks for posting this for us!
Papapietro Perry is definitely Zin in a more Pinot style if that makes sense. I still found it a little hot, but it wasn’t super extracted berry sauce.
Keep in mind RRV runs pretty much from very cool spots like Green Valley up to the edge of Headlsburg where it intersects Dry Creek and Alexander Valley. The climate varies, and I have little doubt there is some very old vine Zin within the RRV AVA.
Also, Zin like virtually every other grape in CA is generally grown in hotter than necessary climates. This can get you a nice dry port style Zin. But surely it can handle slightly cooler climes, though probably not quite as cool as Pinot or Chard.
Ha - that made me laugh out loud here at my desk.
1 here for me. i like the idea that its something thats drinking well now. after all these ‘celler for 435 years’ wines ive been getting here it’ll be nice to rock something now that is top tiered on the winery’s list of selections
I think this seems like a good, balanced hybrid-style blend: not international and too jammy and extracted, but still concentrated and not truly Old world and restrained. I’d guess it won’t last as long as a Pomerol (no idea how the soil compares anyway…), but it has likely a lot of good concentrated CA fruit to compensate.
So, that’s quite an early dumb phase! I wonder when it went dumb, being an 06 at only 4 years old. My guess (and it’s a complete guess) is that if there is a dumb phase for this style it’s earlier and shorter then perhaps than more traditioal old-world styles. Rpm says that a Cab’s dumb phase (traditional Cabs and clarets) will be 7-10 years or around those times. But that’s for an old-fashioned wine ageable in the 20+ year region!
I’m making an educated guess here from the information available: is this roughly accurate?
Ah yes, being tall enough to stick the point through your feet must hurt a lot. I’d keep sword talk out of it. Too many sorceresses with dangerous spells in these parts.
I’m curious since it’s a blend is there multiple dumb phases, like 1 for each veriatal? Just some maybe less noticeable because they have a lower %? Or since it’s mixed it will just hit it’s 1 or so dumb phases altogether.
I wondered that too. Well, all good trad blends are made such that they sing differently at different ages, but always harmoniously. Perhaps Like a good cinematographer panning out but keeping great composition all the way through the shot! The CF zing fades, but the tannins soften and the leathery notes from the CS comes through perhaps, etc etc. But dumb phases, good question! Probably part of this blending tradeoff. Let’s hope the experts return
PS amazing value on a woot wine from July, the Donati famly vineyards. was $15 a bottle on woot, is $5 a bottle now in thanksgiving sale!
Follow the conversation from here in this thread.