I was selected as a rat for today’s offer, so here are my notes on Leoni Farms Blend 16. After a quick side note: this was the first time that UPS has left a package of alcohol on the porch after not so even much as a knock at the door. Even now that they’re no longer collecting signatures, the usual delivery guy for my neighborhood will still make sure I’m home before leaving the package. Not this time! Since I knew when to expect it, at least it wasn’t sitting in the sun for very long, and it arrived with enough time to let it rest for a couple days before opening it.
Anyway, after taking it out of my wine fridge, twisting off the cap, and pouring the first glass, the aroma hits me with a bunch of bright fruit. Maybe some tart red cherries, and maybe a little bit of those Rainier cherries are in there, too. There’s a little heat from the alcohol behind that.
The flavor is also full of fruit. You might even call it a fruit bomb, with some sweet black plum shrapnel. It’s also sweet… this might be a dry wine (not sure about residual sugar), but it’s fruity enough to give it a sweet character to my tongue. I can’t say much about acidity or tannins… they’re present, but they’re in the back seat here. Or maybe even the trunk. Well, I can find the tannins in the finish, and I think that brings some balance to the wine.
I feel like if I can concentrate, I can pick out Barbera-specific notes, and Zinfandel-specific notes. Sweetness and tart fruit from the Barbera, with plush young Zinfandel underneath. I also wonder if this is entirely unoaked? If not, I think it couldn’t have seen much time in barrel before being bottled.
On night number two, it seems a little more integrated, which is better to my taste. It’s still got lots of sweet bright fruit, but the tannins stand out a bit more, and there’s even a little pucker to the finish. The aroma has shrunk a bit, the fruit is now subdued in my nose, and the alcoholic heat dominates. This is reduced with a little bit of a chill, so I might recommend serving at below the usual room temperature, especially on the second day.
I’m not sure when this was bottled, and while I wonder if it wouldn’t do well with a little more time to sit in the bottle and meld, I can’t imagine this was made to age. I think it drinks pretty well now, especially with some food. I’m afraid I have no good suggestions for pairings; I thought this might go well with a fruit salad or dessert, but the sweet wine on top of sweet food was too much! The curry over grains I had for supper were decent with the wine, but not great. Although the sweet notes I get are a counterpoint to a spicy dish.
I hope these notes help some. Have a great day, and enjoy your wine!
I took a photo of this wine then realized I never took one of the actual LiQuId iN tHe GlAsS facepalm. Anyhoo! I did make a pathetic TikTok of myself pouring it into a glass… Mind you, this was never intended to leave the drafts of my phone; however, in the name of supporting you beautiful people on your quest to purchase more wine, I shall share the embarrassing shit-post of a video. This was a mid-day glass with an Aldi brand organic Lunchable and some Blend 16 – it went very well with the off-brand chips ahoy bites.
My dudes, I am so glad you asked!! It was a weird and transformative experience. Poured sweet and rather one-dimensional. I kid you not my wife and I both tasted it, wrote our initial one phrase impression and hid them from one another, and we both wrote Welches Grape Juice – not in a bad way just our gut reaction… Did I hate myself for saying that too? Yes, I did. Like really man?
Wine --tastes like grape juice lol??? Cringe for my own self of lack of fun initial flavor interpretation.
Later I pinpointed that flavor to actually more closely resemble what I think was a nifty blackcurrant juice I use to acquire from a hole-in-the-wall middle eastern market near my childhood home about 15 or so years ago.
Once the bad boy had time to breathe and open up we got cherry / black cherry juice on the front-end and plum on the swallow. I also got some mahogany and or cherry pit if that makes any sense – Somewhere between cherry pit or seed flavor and dark wood freshly oiled if that has a flavor… Also, most of the sweetness died off! A tinge of slightly spiced vanilla may have come round as well?
Yay – definitely smooth, yummy, crowd-pleaser, nothing too polarizing. The Mrs and I tend to have opposing palates but we both thought this wine to be hunky-dory.
Later had a glass with some makeshift pan-asian / socal ish ground beef sriracha cilantro crema nachos. May not have been this wines calling but I was impressed with how well it accompanied the rich buttery ground beef.
Finished a glass the next day and the flavors certainly changed even more. Next to no sweetness left, a tad dry, still very yummy, still cherry to plum from taste to swallow.
@Leonifarms@mediocrebot it was my own fault for ripping it open, pairing it with a Lunchable, and slamming it 2.4 seconds later HAHA no welch’s once I poured it properly and gave it a few minutes haha
Whoever said Welch’s Grape Juice nailed it. I was so hopeful upon pop and pour - a nice brambly nose with raspberry, with a bit of spice. Over time, it’s just devolved into a massive fruit bomb. Which, if you like that kind of thing, will make you happy! I probably cannot finish this bottle unfortunately, except maybe in sangria.
We had Chipotle for dinner so it’s quite possible that the pairing ruined it as well.
I have not had this wine. But, can say I have enjoyed a lot of Jon’s other wines and have them in my personal cellar. Have always liked all his wines and like the label concept on this one.
Cheers
@collegebob@ttboy23
It wasn’t that way at the old site. Once the offer was over, you were left to wonder how much it went for unless someone (like Cesare) posted the details for posterity. While this site leaves more footprints, the Cellar Tracker link is appreciated and over time it has become a tradition, I suppose.
I’m looking forward to hearing about this, the other day I enjoyed my 2nd of 3 bottle of Leoni Farms Zinfandel, one of my first purchases here, and was left wishing I’d gotten a case.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
Leoni Farms Blend 16 Red Wine - $50 = 25.63%
Amador County Rte. 16 goes from a quiet country road to a Barbera and Zinfandel super highway every September. This blend pays homage to that 2-lane road which has served as a driveway and cattle trail for the Leoni’s for 6 generations.
Specs
Varietals: 80% Barbera & 20% Zinfanel
Appellation: Amador County
Alcohol: 13.9%
Included in the Box
4-bottles:
4x Leoni Farms Blend 16 Red Wine, Amador County
Case:
12x Leoni Farms Blend 16 Red Wine, Amador County
Price Comparison
Not for sale online, $288/case MSRP
About The Winery
Winery: Leoni Farms Winery
Owners: Jon R. Campbell
Location: Sutter Creek, California
For 6 generations we’ve done everything from dairy farming, mining, cattle ranching, logging, and construction in these mountains to try and make a living. We hope wine works because we don’t know what the heck else to do.
“Winemaking gives me the opportunity to see something from the very beginning of the pruning season, all the way to a glass of wine that I’ve made,” Campbell reflects. “It’s the feeling that you aged it, you maturated it and it’s something you molded and created. It’s very satisfying.”
Leoni Farms is a tribute to Co-Owner Meredith Campbell’s family name. The Leoni’s were Swiss pioneers who arrived with a Swiss-Italian wine-drinking tradition. The bottle art for Leoni Farms, a stalking silhouetted mountain lion, pays homage to the Swiss-Italian story in Amador. The word “leone” is Italian for lion. When sojourners from the Alps first arrived in the Mother Lode in the 1850s, many put stakes down in the higher elevations, where mountain lions, grizzly bears and gray wolves were part of the rugged natural world. Now only the mountain lions remain. But, as Campbell’s quick to point out, the brick and mortar of that era remains, too. For him, it’s the reason Amador’s wine tasting ambiance can’t be matched by other California settings.
Hello hello, Mates!
I was selected as a rat for today’s offer, so here are my notes on Leoni Farms Blend 16. After a quick side note: this was the first time that UPS has left a package of alcohol on the porch after not so even much as a knock at the door. Even now that they’re no longer collecting signatures, the usual delivery guy for my neighborhood will still make sure I’m home before leaving the package. Not this time! Since I knew when to expect it, at least it wasn’t sitting in the sun for very long, and it arrived with enough time to let it rest for a couple days before opening it.
Anyway, after taking it out of my wine fridge, twisting off the cap, and pouring the first glass, the aroma hits me with a bunch of bright fruit. Maybe some tart red cherries, and maybe a little bit of those Rainier cherries are in there, too. There’s a little heat from the alcohol behind that.
The flavor is also full of fruit. You might even call it a fruit bomb, with some sweet black plum shrapnel. It’s also sweet… this might be a dry wine (not sure about residual sugar), but it’s fruity enough to give it a sweet character to my tongue. I can’t say much about acidity or tannins… they’re present, but they’re in the back seat here. Or maybe even the trunk. Well, I can find the tannins in the finish, and I think that brings some balance to the wine.
I feel like if I can concentrate, I can pick out Barbera-specific notes, and Zinfandel-specific notes. Sweetness and tart fruit from the Barbera, with plush young Zinfandel underneath. I also wonder if this is entirely unoaked? If not, I think it couldn’t have seen much time in barrel before being bottled.
On night number two, it seems a little more integrated, which is better to my taste. It’s still got lots of sweet bright fruit, but the tannins stand out a bit more, and there’s even a little pucker to the finish. The aroma has shrunk a bit, the fruit is now subdued in my nose, and the alcoholic heat dominates. This is reduced with a little bit of a chill, so I might recommend serving at below the usual room temperature, especially on the second day.
I’m not sure when this was bottled, and while I wonder if it wouldn’t do well with a little more time to sit in the bottle and meld, I can’t imagine this was made to age. I think it drinks pretty well now, especially with some food. I’m afraid I have no good suggestions for pairings; I thought this might go well with a fruit salad or dessert, but the sweet wine on top of sweet food was too much! The curry over grains I had for supper were decent with the wine, but not great. Although the sweet notes I get are a counterpoint to a spicy dish.
I hope these notes help some. Have a great day, and enjoy your wine!
@worbx I love your thoughts on food pairings. Thank you for the review.
What’s crackin’ fellow case-maters?!
I took a photo of this wine then realized I never took one of the actual LiQuId iN tHe GlAsS facepalm. Anyhoo! I did make a pathetic TikTok of myself pouring it into a glass… Mind you, this was never intended to leave the drafts of my phone; however, in the name of supporting you beautiful people on your quest to purchase more wine, I shall share the embarrassing shit-post of a video. This was a mid-day glass with an Aldi brand organic Lunchable and some Blend 16 – it went very well with the off-brand chips ahoy bites.
https://www.tiktok.com/@thebushdownthestreet/video/6865882267286277381?lang=en
Onward we march. “So, Connor, how was the wine?”
My dudes, I am so glad you asked!! It was a weird and transformative experience. Poured sweet and rather one-dimensional. I kid you not my wife and I both tasted it, wrote our initial one phrase impression and hid them from one another, and we both wrote Welches Grape Juice – not in a bad way just our gut reaction… Did I hate myself for saying that too? Yes, I did. Like really man?
Wine --tastes like grape juice lol??? Cringe for my own self of lack of fun initial flavor interpretation.
Later I pinpointed that flavor to actually more closely resemble what I think was a nifty blackcurrant juice I use to acquire from a hole-in-the-wall middle eastern market near my childhood home about 15 or so years ago.
Once the bad boy had time to breathe and open up we got cherry / black cherry juice on the front-end and plum on the swallow. I also got some mahogany and or cherry pit if that makes any sense – Somewhere between cherry pit or seed flavor and dark wood freshly oiled if that has a flavor… Also, most of the sweetness died off! A tinge of slightly spiced vanilla may have come round as well?
Yay – definitely smooth, yummy, crowd-pleaser, nothing too polarizing. The Mrs and I tend to have opposing palates but we both thought this wine to be hunky-dory.
Later had a glass with some makeshift pan-asian / socal ish ground beef sriracha cilantro crema nachos. May not have been this wines calling but I was impressed with how well it accompanied the rich buttery ground beef.
Finished a glass the next day and the flavors certainly changed even more. Next to no sweetness left, a tad dry, still very yummy, still cherry to plum from taste to swallow.
At $12 / bottle it is a steal imho.
Thanks for coming along for the ride.
@mediocrebot why are you mad at me?
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
@mediocrebot
eh? wtf triggered that?
@connorbush @mediocrebot it was the Welches reference
@mediocrebot @rjquillin yah… that’s a new one…much better than awesome
OWLS! TOWELS! JOWLS! AWESOME!
@mediocrebot @rjquillin dudes?
@connorbush @Leonifarms @mediocrebot
@Leonifarms @mediocrebot it was my own fault for ripping it open, pairing it with a Lunchable, and slamming it 2.4 seconds later HAHA no welch’s once I poured it properly and gave it a few minutes haha
@connorbush TOTALLY FAILED TO MENTION MOUTHFEEL.
Silky with a clean finish. Medium viscosity perhaps?
@connorbush
@mediocrebot @rjquillin @TimW
Huh, I guess whatever it was got deleted?
Do I sense a mediocrebot vs. volunteer moderator showdown a-brewin’?
@chipgreen @mediocrebot @TimW
We both know the source of the super powers, and who the loser would be, should that occur.
Are you accusin’?
@connorbush Thank you for the awesome report. You just upped the game with that Tik-Tok clip and the lunchable. Classic!
POPSOCKETS! ROAD ROCKETS! SONNY CROCKETT! AWESOME!
Late to the game rat as we were out of the town.
Whoever said Welch’s Grape Juice nailed it. I was so hopeful upon pop and pour - a nice brambly nose with raspberry, with a bit of spice. Over time, it’s just devolved into a massive fruit bomb. Which, if you like that kind of thing, will make you happy! I probably cannot finish this bottle unfortunately, except maybe in sangria.
We had Chipotle for dinner so it’s quite possible that the pairing ruined it as well.
I have not had this wine. But, can say I have enjoyed a lot of Jon’s other wines and have them in my personal cellar. Have always liked all his wines and like the label concept on this one.
Cheers
@ScottHarveyWine thanks dude - hope all is well
@Leonifarms @ScottHarveyWine Here’s to Amador y’all!
I’m still drinking it, now paired with a brown sugar and cinnamon pop tart. This pairing is actually delightful.
@aces219 Wow
@aces219 @klezman
I’m impressed you’d even think of that pairing.
@aces219 Chipotle and PopTarts. Kudos to the “everyday” rats like myself lol.
@scott0210 ha, sometimes! We got home last night from an 8 day road trip, so cooking was not going to happen tonight.
The pop tarts happened to be sitting on the counter, left over from that trip…
I couldn’t finish the wine.
Leoni Farms Blend 16 Red Wine
4 bottles for $64.99 $16.25/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $144.99 $12.08/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
NV Leoni Farms Blend 16 Red Wine
@ilCesare
Ahh, there you are!
I always try to give you a few if you don’t post right at midnight so that you can have the top post.
@chipgreen @ilCesare
Yeah, always good to have Cesare around.
@chipgreen @ilCesare Pardon my ignorance., but why are you waiting for this to be posted when it is already statedin the offer information?
@chipgreen @collegebob Cellar Tracker info (link) plus convenience, I believe.
@collegebob @ttboy23
It wasn’t that way at the old site. Once the offer was over, you were left to wonder how much it went for unless someone (like Cesare) posted the details for posterity. While this site leaves more footprints, the Cellar Tracker link is appreciated and over time it has become a tradition, I suppose.
@chipgreen @collegebob @ttboy23 that Cellar Tracker link is key! I always check CT for reviews there!
I’m looking forward to hearing about this, the other day I enjoyed my 2nd of 3 bottle of Leoni Farms Zinfandel, one of my first purchases here, and was left wishing I’d gotten a case.
@Shinytrinket
Seems this happens substantially more often than ‘why did I get a case of this plonk!’
@Shinytrinket 'twas good. would recommend to a friend.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
Leoni Farms Blend 16 Red Wine - $50 = 25.63%
@chipgreen And there IT is!
Went to pull the trigger…NO ILLI-NOISE? Sniff…
Leoni Farms Blend 16 Red Wine, Amador County
Tasting Notes
Specs
Included in the Box
4-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
Not for sale online, $288/case MSRP
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Sep 21 - Tuesday, Sep 22
Still waiting for Leoni Farms to Virginia . . .
I think if you like Inzinerator you will like this - similar flavor profile but lighter in alcohol.