The name on this wine is a new one, but the winemaker is not new to wine. Mark Gendron has been producing wine for a good 20 years and founded JanKris winery back in 1990. He recently sold JanKris and is working on some new winemaking ventures, namely JK Estates and Wildfire Cellars. Stray Dog Zinfandel is produced and bottled under the JK Estates label.
The fruit in Stray Dog Zinfandel comes from Paso Robles, the same area where Gendron produced wines with JanKris. A simple, but memorable label introduces you to this Zinfandel.
It’s a tight nose on this wine, but what’s there is interesting. The earthy side of the aroma spectrum seems to dominate over the fruity side. Coffee, walnut and tar aromas lay on top of blackberry and raspberry. The fruit comes to life much more on the palate with full blackberry and loads of black cherry. It’s not at all jammy, like many California Zinfandels can be. The finish is pure bing cherry, perhaps a more exact flavor of bing cherry than I’ve ever tasted in a wine before. The acids are good and the tannins are adequate. It’s a good wine.
Wifey gave the wine an “ooooohhh”, which is about as good a complement and commentary you’ll get from her about a wine.
Wine: Stray Dog
Variety: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 14.3%
Rating: 85
Price: $20.00
Find Stray Dog Zinfandel with Snooth
I am looking forward to trying this wine. Any idea what kind of numbers it was produced in, or thoughts about distribution?
Production last year was 2500 cases. This year it will be up to 4000.
It’s distributed in Maine, Mass, Vermont, Maryland, DC, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Michigan, Illinois, Minn, California and Canada.
As the owner of Jankris wine, you should know that we have several judgement’s against Mr. Gendron, and two court orders ordering him to cease and desist using the name JK estates. Anyone selling the wines is in violation of the court order, and puts themselves in a vulnerable position for future legal action. You should notify any inquires of such so any innocent victim of Mr. Gendrons scams are not caught up in legal entanglements.
Thanks
HI Matt,
Please tell me more about the legal proceedings.
Thank you,
Adam Schneider
PacRim Wines
There are no more legal issues involved. JanKris made allegations of trademark infringement, but the funny thing was, they don’t own any of the trademarks in question — Mark Gendron does. We beat them like a rented mule.
John Ricketts
broker for Stray Dog