The 13.6 Alcohol Zin

The New York Times wine panel liked the 2004 Gravity Hills Zinfandel. I haven't tasted the 2004, so I can't comment on the wine but I can comment on the alcohol. Asimov wrote, "This wine came in at 13.6 percent alcohol, almost unheard of for a zin these days, and it came through as a nicely restrained, refreshing wine with attractive mineral, earthy notes. It was as if the wine's lack of mass and density permitted complexity to show through." Okay. I am not that trusting when it comes to wine and marketing spin. Given how prevalent alcohol adjustment is in California, I gotta ask; Reverse Osmosis? Water? Spinning Cone? At least in my own 'trust no one unless I know them," way, I have to pose the question, especially in a high alcohol district like Paso. And, I do wish my fellow journalists would ask as well, it's pretty relevant. Not that there's anything wrong with liking an artificially alcoholically reduced wine. I don't personally want to drink such fabrications. Like last night, I was visiting a friend in from France at the SoHo Grand. She was munching on some very processed sour cream and onion chips that did not try to pretend they were all-natural. "Really," she said in her South African accent, "You really can't eat these?" I can't. And I still adore her. Back to GH. I tried to get in touch with the winery last year when I got a rock (as a press release) in the mail to show me how minerally their wines were and how tough their soil was to work. I couldn't get a response. As reported by Alan Goldfarb of AppellationAmerica.com, the Formeauxs (formerly of Chateau Potelle) do seem to own 90 acres in Paso between Tablas Creek and Peachy Canyon, but their website is so misleading, and there's no address, that I get a sense of Brigadoon about the 'estate.' If anyone out there has any information? Bring it on.