I’m finally getting to my first personal blog post on wines! It’s taken a while for me to get my act together to actually write up one of the wines I’ve been enjoying since moving back to San Francisco.

St. Francis Old Vinez Zinfandel 2011

My wife and I have been fans of big Sonoma Zin’s for a long, long time. We went through a phase where we drank really, really big wines – the super jammy, tannic monsters that Europeans dislike but Americans love.

The St. Francis Old Vines Zin isn’t quite a monster, but it does have a lot of great fruits and a long finish. But, unlike the wines we used to drink when we were a little younger, the finish is more tame and wine doesn’t stain our teeth in the same purplish kind of a way.

In addition to a great cherry nose, there is some kind of a black pepper flavor. And the finish is real, but not stupidly tannic. We’ve enjoyed this with blue cheese and and with a variety of meals like cioppino (yup, seafood) and meat.

I’ve bought a few of these and put them down, and I think they will get even better for the next few years. I hope to finish them up by 2018 or so!