Storybook Mountain Estate Reserve Zinfandel 2012

Professional Ratings

• 94 Wine & Spirits
  If you go for a hike in the Palisades above Napa Valley, this is what the summer air smells like—sage, manzanita and wild flowers. That multidimensional scent gives the wine a floral, spicy aromatic complexity rarely found in Napa Valley reds. This is a lean and muscular zin, and though it may not have the kind of energy that sustains Storybook’s best Estate Reserves for decades in the cellar, it is tightly focused, its ripe fruit tunneling through mineral-inflected tannins and making an imprint on the palate that lasts. Perhaps its marathon-runner’s build will keep it in shape as it ages. For now, it’s a testament to how Napa Valley zinfandel can be much prettier than cabernet.
• 90 Wine Spectator
  Well-built, with rich fruit notes and a central core of focused tannin and acid. Aromas of black cherry and fresh sage open to powerful flavors of boysenberry, licorice and pepper that linger toward full tannins. Drink now through 2021.