Zinfandel is the great
American success story. It is a versatile performer capable of wearing many
masks, of playing many roles in the drama of modern wine—or is it a comedy?
Jury is still out...
my favorite Zinfandel moments include a dinner with
a noted (very, and for that reason anonymous in this instance) American
importer of fine wines from France and elsewhere in the Old World. Among other
foolishness, I had concealed a bottle of 1973 Ridge Geyserville in a paper bag,
and soon had the fellow swirling the wine in his glass and trying his damndest
to guess which château in Pauillac the wine had come from. Oh dear…
Ridge will figure prominently
in any story about Zinfandel—nearly twenty years ago I had invited a couple
topnotch German winegrowers from the Pfalz to dine with me in Los Angeles at my
favorite haunt, and spared no resource in digging out some extraordinarily good
California wines for them to enjoy—very fine examples: 1978 Chateau Montelena
Cabernet Sauvignon, 1978 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill Cabernet Sauvignon—but the
one wine that took the cake, not to mention making the braised lamb-shank bleat
out of sheer ecstasy was the 1970 Jimsomare Zinfandel from Ridge. Still a baby
at twenty-five years of age, a subsequent bottle ten years later was
approaching perfection.
and lest one infer that I'm just reciting ancient
history, not too long ago I had taken a group of colleagues and customers on my
Different Germany tour, which ended up in Siebeldingen in the Pfalz, where we
came to roost in the Hotel Sonnenhof, and had a wonderful dinner in their
restaurant. Top wine of the night? 1994 Ridge Geyserville — which during its
rather fast half-life in decanter and glasses managed to hover weightlessly—not
a bad trick at 14.3° alcohol—between Bordeaux and the Veneto. And had cost the
princely sum of 24€ on the Sonnenhof's
wine list.
and we want to get to know
this versatile fellow just a little better. Every few years a new theory has
been hatched concerning the origin of Zinfandel, and its relationship (very
close) to the Italian variety Primitivo along with is relationship (close) to
the Plavac Mali from Croatia. But now the mystery has been solved once and for
all, by Californian vine-geneticist Carole Merideth, who has identified the
original Zinfandel—Tribidrag—in an obscure vineyard on the Dalmatian coast of
Croatia, where it is known as Crljenak Kastelanski. And what's more, there
are historical records of the Tribidrag being traded —and mentioned by
name—across the Adriatic Sea to Venice in the early 1400s. One excellent
appreciation of the variety was published by David Darlington in 1991; his Angels' Visits remained one of my
favorite wine-books for quite some time. Darlington places Zinfandel's initial American
appearance made in the1820s, brought over from the Imperial collection in
Vienna, Austria. In the 1830s it was offered for sale by a Boston nursery, and
became a popular table grape—grown under glass—in New England. In the 1850s Zinfandel
was introduced to California, where it became a mainstay of the burgeoning
viticulture that developed after the gold rush, and was widely planted during
the wine-boom of the 1880s.
i am in the minority among
serious wine professionals in not blanketly condemning the phenomenon of White
Zinfandel, that wine tailored to the American consumer who’d grown up drinking
Kool-Aid (not the metaphorical, but the original) and had a taste for that sort
of sweetness. I actually served a bottle once along with Mulligitawny, and it
was fine. And it introduced consumers to wine that otherwise would not have
dared a step in that direction. But more importantly, it kept some really good
old-vines vineyards from either getting hacked-out or budded-over during the
1990s.
zinfandel is rather disease-resistant
in the vineyard; it produces generous bunches of grapes, but these will quite
have unripe, ripe and over-ripe grapes hanging together. Once in the bottle he
holds his liquor rather well. Common characteristics of aroma and flavor
include spice-notes; the clove, cinnamon, black pepper and mint. Fruits belong
to the dark-berry variety, black currant and black raspberry, black cherry. One
notable Zinfandel that has always appealed to me is the gentler style practiced
by Doug Nalle, who told me he always tried to get his Zin into the house at or
under 24° brix, which meant into the bottle right around fourteen percent
alcohol. This is a variety that works and plays well with others. Ridge’s wines
can either be primarily zinfandel, like their Lytton Springs, or a field-blend like
Geyserville that actually doesn’t have enough Zinf on the lot to wear the name
by law—although it certainly wears the heart on its sleeve. Favorite playmates
include Carignane, Alicante Bouschet and Petite Sirah.
Joel Peterson and Ravenswood
hardly need any introduction, but another estate I greatly admire is Green and
Red. Propreitor Jay Heminway was a maverick, who planted Zinfandel on Howell
Mountain at a time where anybody with any sense was planting CS & M. His
wines buck the general trend toward bubblegumminess in Napa Zinfandel, and
manage to show plenty of balance at north of 15% alcohol.
my personal favorite locale
for this variety is Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley. And that means growers like
Rafanelli, Quivira, Ridge Lytton and Unti, along with urban pioneers Dashe, who
make wines from the ancient vines in Louvau Vineyard and Toll Brothers Ranch. Dry
Creek was already overgrown with Zinfandel well before the end of the 19th
century, although the growers suffered one significant setback with the
pandemic of phylloxera in the early 20th century—which found Zin
being replanted on the resistant St George rootstock—and then another with the
unmitigated disaster of Prohibition. Fortunately many of these old vineyards survived
the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, and still form a significant part of
the 2400 acres of Zinfandel in the AVA.
of course it is important to
acknowledge Sonoma Valley's Stellwagen and Old Hill vineyards as well... And then
there’s Amador & Shenandoah. Mountain wine. Thicker skins and stewed fruit
notes, offering great depth of flavor and sometimes a little heat going down
the dolce vita… Lodi, Paso Robles, Contra Costa County—all of these are good
Zin territory.
one excellent tribute to Zinfandel was paid on the public wine
forum Wine Berserkers recently, where the members took great pains to compile a
list of the venerable sites in the Golden State where Zinfandel is grown. The URL
is: http://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18190&hilit=california+old+zinfandel+vineyards
zinfandel is currently
enjoying a resurgence on the NYC gastro-scene. Food matching with the variety
is eminently rewarding; there are few directions in which this versatile fellow
fears to tread, and most of those are better fed with—any culinary
manifestations Italianate heritage, most red meat dishes—and lighter Zins will
do as nicely as Chianti with seared salmon. Zinfandel likes cheeses like
Reggiano, Mimolette and Roomano from Holland; some of the bigger ones will even
take on Gorgonzola rather handily.
