2022 Robert Biale Vineyards Black Chicken Zinfandel, Napa Valley, USA (750ml)

TASTING NOTES:

A classic Napa Valley Zinfandel, this bottling offers savory and earthy aromatics that carry into flavors of dark plum, tobacco and dark chocolate. It’s rich in flavor, well balanced by mouthwatering acidity that refreshes the palate with every sip. Impressively persistent.

– Wine Enthusiast, 94 pts.

Delicious, harmonious and flavorful Zinfandel. This has notes of plums, spiced cherries, wild berries, herbs and rusks. Medium- to full-bodied with fine tannins. It has a bright core of berries at the center with a subtle structure. Mellow and poised. Drink or hold.

– James Suckling, 93 pts.

Robust yet retaining a sense of refinement, this red offers blackberry, briar patch and white pepper flavors that build tension toward medium-grained tannins. Drink now through 2034. 7,400 cases made.

– Wine Advocate, 93 pts.

The 2022 Zinfandel Black Chicken is one of the most potent wines in this range. Black cherry, plum, leather, tobacco, incense and licorice give this extroverted, generous Zinfandel tons of character. There is no shortage of intensity here.

– Vinous, 92 pts.

Blended from a number of vineyards, including some barrels from single vineyards that get “declassified” into this bottling, the 2022 Zinfandel Black Chicken comes from vines with an average age of 40 years. Raspberries and blackberries mark the nose, accompanied by hints of cracked pepper and ground clove, while the palate is medium to full-bodied, framed by silky tannins and finishing long and softly dusty.

– Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, 91 pts.