Carol Shelton Black Magic Late Harvest Zinfandel (375ML half-bottle) 2014
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Wilfred
Wong
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
Owner/Winemaker Carol Shelton waves her magic zin wand and signals, "abracadabra!" and we have this magical dessert Zin. Pretty fine and mystical, the 2014 Carol Shelton Black Magic Late Harvest Zinfandel takes us into a world of its own. There is only a handful of dessert Zinfandels in the marketplace and this is one the very best. Exotic aromas of black fruit, dark chocolate and a port-like note float out of the glass. On the palate, there is a profusion of crushed dried fruit—apricots, plums, peaches—which glides gently before the wine's long finish lingers after the wine has been consumed. Drinking very well now.
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2021-
Wilfred
Wong
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Wilfred
Wong
In 2000 Carol and her husband Mitch Mackenzie, a former software engineer, launched their own brand – Carol Shelton Wines. Faced with the opportunity to create her own identity and focus on whatever varietals she wanted, Carol chose Zinfandel.
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.