Guest Post: A “Meritage” for Zinfandel lovers: Coro Mendocino

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While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome David Lazarus, another local wine blogger and soon-to-be wine shop owner. Thanks David!
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The mission of the Consortium Mendocino is to increase the awareness and value of Mendocino wine and winegrape products through the production of “Coro Mendocino”, a controlled, ultra premium blended wine that reflects the quality and commitment of the Mendocino County wine industry.

Coro Mendocino in it’s simplest is a Zinfandel blend made exclusively from fruit from Mendocino and their first vintage was 2001. However there is much more to it than that. This is a dynamic style of wine which is awarded Coro status by a jury of Mendocino growers/ producers. The current vintage (06) features wines from ten wineries, while last years had eleven.

Photo from Michelle's Parducci Wine Brunch

I have tried four of the wines that have been in the Cincinnati market for the last several years and they are very good, while each unique. The Coro Consortium allows for up to nine other varietal (commonly found in Mendocino) to be blended into the finished product. The percentage of any one varietal, however cannot exceed that of Zinfandel, which must fall between 40% and 70%. These restriction are just the begining of the protocol, which is quiet specific and can be found on the web site for Coro Mendocino.

All of these wines are priced the same (the 2005’s were $37 each) and feature labels that show the winery name and information, as well as the specifics on the blend. The blends vary greatly from winery to winery and even from year to year in some cases. This is a wonderful showcase of Mendocino fruit and I consider it to have better quality control, as all wines that eventually feature the Coro badge have been peer review twice in the barrel and twice after bottling. A wine maker cannot just pay for the privilege of using the title as is the case with meritage wines.

It is rare in this part of the country to see more than a couple of these wines in stores because of twisted distribution laws. I have been able to find complete sets of Coros from SIP Mendocino in California at www.sipmendocino.com or 707-744-4375. I am a fan of anything different when it comes to wine and that puts Coros right up my alley. They are fun for the adventurous, but will surely please even the novice wine drinker with their varied complexity.