Boeger zins, through the years

In their youth, Boeger Winery zinfandels from Walker Vineyard are bright and vivid, with a supple and agile build and a fruitiness that runs to fresh blackberries and raspberries.

But how do they age?

We sat down to a vertical tasting of about a dozen of them not long ago, and found that the older ones remain balanced and frisky even after several years in the cellar.

1984: Showing its age in the orange that tints its fading red and in a suggestion of walnuts in flavor, but those notes only add complexity to a wine that remains aromatic and fruity two decades after it was bottled.

1989: Color is thinning but remains bright, while the flavor of zinfandel when it is fully ripe continues to shine through. Won a gold medal at the California State Fair in 1991 and probably could have again this year.

1991: An easy growing year helped produce a zinfandel that remains fleshy, smooth and balanced.

1995: As much as any wine in the tasting, this one said "Walker Vineyard" in the way it seized and continues to grip fresh and bright raspberry fruit prickly with a dash of white pepper.

1997: Though the wine did well upon release, winning a double-gold medal at the Amador County Fair in 2000, it now comes across as an unusually soft, round and short version of a Walker Vineyard zinfandel.

1998: Though the growing year was uncharacteristically cool, the wine is unusually warm, with alcohol at 15.9 percent in contrast to the 14 percent or so typical of Walker Vineyard zinfandels. It's also unusual in its green, herbal flavor, its touch of raisins and its hard tannins.

1999: This was the vintage when Greg Boeger began to turn over winemaking to his son Justin, the collaboration producing a Walker Vineyard zinfandel that while lean continues to fill the mouth with luscious berry flavors, finishing with an elegance more evident than usual up to this point.

2001: While the alcohol is a typically restrained 14.2 percent for the Walker, the wine is kicked up a notch, coming off bigger and bolder than usual, with a current of chocolate not generally found in the wine.

2002: At 16 percent alcohol, the 2002 is an even heartier take on Walker Vineyard zinfandel, its ripe and sweet berry flavors jammier than ever.

2003: In every aspect -- the density of its color, the jamminess of its fruit, the warmth of its alcohol (16.5 percent), the broadness of its oak and the intensity of its spiciness -- this is the huskiest Walker yet, a wine to lay down for 5 to 10 years rather than drink now.

2004: Old school meets new school in the 2004, which grabs both the sweet youthful fruit and sharp texture of the Greg Boeger era and the richness, depth and oak of the Justin Boeger era, yielding a wine muscular yet agile. The 2004 is sold out, and the 2005, to cost $18, is to be released in October.

--  Mike Dunne