Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Forgive Me Father For I Have Zinned

Last weekend saw the circus know as the ZAP Festival celebrating all things Zinfandel, come to town. One of the nice things about living in Northern California is that ZAP is one of five wine festivals that allow people to try almost every important wine produced in this state. March will see Rhone Rangers featuring all things Syrah, GSM, Viognier, Marsanne and Roussane. May is California Cabernet Society, June is Pinot Days, and August is Family Winemakers of California.

There are other really interesting geographical festivals as well. Paso Robles and Sonoma are the big ones that come to mind. Next week both the Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Lucia region will have tastings. Later next month Howell Mountain will host and event. So you can see, if you live in this area, you have many opportunities to sample the bounty of CA.

As last week was the Zinfandel Festival, lets concentrate on this enchanting grape. Originally from the Croatia area, this grape originally came to this country as a hot house variety grown back east for table grapes. It took Italian immigrants to realize that this grape can make great wine. It was extensively planted in California, usually in field blends with Allicante Bouchet, Petit Sirah, Carrignae and anything else they could put their hands on. These vineyards are now very rare. Several wineries make some exquisite blends from these very old vineyards. If you can find them, I recommend Edgewood Vineyard from Rudd, and Icon from Ravenswood. Great stuff.

For a very funny take on the history of this grape see the Paso Man Video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R3EnZdhYok.

There used to be a saying about the three Rs in Zinfandel: Ridge, Ravenswood and Rosenblum. Two of the three are now owned by large companies, but are Ravenswood and Rosenblum still making great wine. As stated above, Icon is a great wine from Ravenswood. And at the Grand Tasting I had the opportunity to sample Rosenblum's Monte Rosso Vineyard zin. It was very nice indeed. So these two icons appear to still be in very good hands.

Kent Rosenblum, one of the founders of ZAP is now consulting with Rock Wall Winery, which is owned by his daughter Shauna. I tasted two of their wines and they were quite good. Their version of Monte Rosso zin was particularly good.

Zinfandel usually does not age well. 5-7 years is about all you can expect to get out of a bottle. This is a function of how the cluster ripen in a very uneven fashion. You'll have green grapes and raisins all in the same cluster. Dr. Bernard Seps, owner and winemaker at Storybook Mountain, believes that a strict sorting regimen will give you a Zin that can age up to 20 years. Last year, while I was in the CIA's Wine Immersion Program, we had the privilege to taste some older vintages of his Eastern Exposures zinfandel. They were magnificent. I ended up purchasing several bottles of the 2000 and 1997 vintages for my cellar. This year, Dr. Seps was pouring his 2009 Eastern Exposures and it was clearly best in show. Great jammy fruit and brambles, and a hint of acid made this a great wine to drink now, and one that may age as well.

All in all, ZAP is a great show, and worth going to. I already have next years show on my calendar.

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