Ripe or Over Ripe?

The characteristic of a wine being very ripe is one of those traits that can be seen as a positive quality by some and a flaw by others. Wines that are very ripe tend to have jammy fruit, high alcohol content, and higher residual sugars. These ripe wines come from warmer climates which allow the grapes to achieve maximum ripeness during the growing season (most notably Australia and California).

On the positive side these wines can posses amazing concentration and power; on the other hand they can have overly stewed fruit and poor balance. I would say that a certain degree of ripeness can produce some of the most amazing highly extracted wines, but cross that line and you have highly alcoholic fruit juice. Of course a lot of this has to do with personal taste, some people like very sweet fruity wine, but I think most wine lovers like their wines to have more balance than that.

Here are two wines from California that I think illustrate the point:

2004 Ancient Vines Carignane - Cline
This wine is ripe, perhaps too ripe. It is a touch too sweet for my tastes, something you might want to sip before dinner, but not a main course enhancer for me. At 15% alcohol this wine packs a slightly hot finish that reminds me of prunes. Strawberry, blackberry jam, some clove and maybe some hints of cocoa, oregano and black olive add some nice elements. It is also a beautiful dark ruby-purple and it’s thick and mouth coating. If the sugar and prune like fruit were more in moderation it might be a lot better. $19.95 VG-G

2004 Zinfandel - Rosenblum
Rosenblum is know for its Zinfandels, and some of the vineyard designated Zins have scored quite high (ex. the 2003 Rockpile Road Vinyard scored 94 from Wine Spectator). You might think with 15.7% alcohol it would be an even bigger over ripe offender then the wine above, but I think it manages to pull it off. It has a rich decadent nose of chocolate and super ripe berries – it reminds me of a dark chocolate with raspberry filling. A bit Port like but it’s not cloying. Faint orange peel and tobacco spice in the background. Not overly complex but satisfyingly ripe. $19.95 (and always available at Vintages) E-VG

I’m sure that not every wine drinker would agree completely with my evaluation of these wines, that has more to do with personal tastes, but I’m sure most would agree that the Rosenblum is a more balanced extra ripe style wine.