2003 Carlisle Dry Creek Valley ZINFANDEL

Deep black-ruby/garnet color. Heady nose of rich, spicy raspberries, crushed granite, and black peppercorns. Very full-bodied with minerally, dry raspberry extract flavors. A fair amount of heat shows through in the mid-palate (the wine is 15.9% alcohol, for Pete's sake), but great richness on the finish. 88. Drink now, before it self-destructs -- my experience is that in Zins with this much alcohol, the alcohol tends to kill off the fruit in a few years. I haven't seen this available in Houston. I got mine several months ago from zachys.com. I think it was around $30, which is very expensive for a Zin.