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The Scarlet Path Lodi Old Vines Zinfandel 2021 is a $7.99 exclusive wine at Aldi. It is produced by some segment of a large sustainably farmed family-owned vineyards and winery from Monterey California. They have a branch that makes contracted brands and several Aldi wines.
Lodi is located in the Central Valley of California, and the vineyards are located in the river valleys flowing from the San Pablo Bay, east of Oakland. Lodi is south and east of Napa near Sacramento.
Kodi has multiple old vines Zinfandel vineyards. A top commercial Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard may start to replant vines after 25 years, they want the vineyard to be at the peak of production. Cabernet Sauvignon is a terrific seller year in and year out. It takes about 4 years for a wine to grow wine-worthy grapes, so these vineyards are constantly replanting to keep quality and production high.
Zinfandel, while a popular wine today, was not always a top seller. In the early days, it was thought of as Communion Wine. The White Zinfandel Sweet Rosé craze in the 1060s and early 1970s spurred vineyard production and started Zinfandel being planted in new vineyards. Zinfandel didn’t become popular nationwide until the late 1990s.
There was never enough demand for vineyard owners to replant to keep yields up, so the original vines stayed. Today the vineyards planted in the ^0s and 70s are 50 and 60 years old and the original vineyards are often over 100 years old.
That’s nice but what does that mean to the average wine drinker? A vine that struggles produces better grapes, and a vine that has it easy produces boring one-dimensional grapes. Old vines struggle simply because they are old (there is no law stating what an old vine is, but anything over 45 years is accepted as an old vine)
Old vine is not a style of vine, it simply refers to a vine that may produce exceptional grapes simply by being old. It takes a great winemaker to make a great wine, but starting with excellent grapes doesn’t hurt. Lodi has many vineyards with excellent grapes.
The Scarlet Path Lodi Old Vines Zinfandel 2021 does not offer production or tasting notes, so we do not know the age of the vines or the name of the winemaker, but this label has been sold at Aldi for several vintages. Here is CWF’s review of the 2020 vintage, it was $8.99 then. The alcohol content is a balanced 13.5%.
The Scarlet Path Lodi Old Vines Zinfandel 2021 Tasting Notes
The color is scarlet with very black highlights. The nose is jammy blackberry, light herbs, a touch of spice, cherry, plum, and faint cinnamon, with a floral edge. The Scarlet Path Lodi Old Vines Zinfandel 2021 is medium to full-bodied with soft but engaging flavors.
This Zinfandel tastes like black cherry, dark, bitter chocolate, herbs, and ripe plum. The mid-palate added some stone fruit, orange zest, a hint of vanilla, and pomegranate.
The tannins are sweet and the acidity does a fine job.
The Summary
- The Scarlet Path Lodi Old Vines Zinfandel 2021 is a fine Tuesday night wine or a cook-out wine.
- The price is right and so is the flavor.
- It may not be your favorite or your go-to ZIn, but it is a very useful wine.
