Dashe 2012 Zinfandel Todd Brothers Ranch “Old Vines” (Alexander Valley) — Everything flawlessly in place, just awaiting age. As always, there’s a tightly coiled structure beneath slightly less generous fruit than Dashe’s other zins. Meant for the cellar. (11/16)

Dashe 1999 Zinfandel Todd Brothers Ranch (Alexander Valley) — Some of these are fruitier than others, some are more resolved than others, but they all have this in common: dirt and a hard-edged structure. This is one of the gentler, more aromatically generous versions, and it’s eminently approachable. (7/16)

Dashe 1999 Zinfandel Todd Brothers Ranch (Alexander Valley) – 15%. Extremely oaky, in the soupy vanilla/milk chocolate/coconut fashion of a young zin in the Ridge mold, and with few other signs that the wine has aged at all…other than a noticeable reduction in what was its youthful tannin. This clearly needs more time, but watch that lingering wood. (1/10)

Dashe 1998 Zinfandel Todd Brothers Ranch (Alexander Valley) – 14.5%. Tiring, and though it still clings to remnants of its dusty, dark fruit days, those days are firmly in the past. It’s not yet in an imbalanced stage, in which the structure overwhelms the remnants, but it’s getting there. (12/09)