Zinfandel Festival

Zinfandel Festival
Shane’s Notes

We attended ZAP’s Zinfandel Festival at Fort Mason a few weekends ago. Zinfandel is a rather playful varietal, and the varietal name lends itself to some interesting brand names. There is a Sin Zin, a Cardinal Zin, The Seven Deadly Zins, and one of my favorite Zins of the tasting, a Temptation Zin. At the Bonny Doon table (Cardinal Zin), there was even a confession machine and the reps were dressed as devils.

Obviously, a great Zin is not on the same level as a first growth Bordeaux. At their best, Zins are juicy, spicy and fun to drink. At their worst, as we found out at this festival, they are undrinkable, flabby vanilla bombs. We have never been to a wine festival with more bad wine, and we have never poured out more wine in our entire lives.

Looking back over my notes, the four best we tasted were the Alexander Valley Vineyards 2004 Temptation Zin, Kunde’s 2003 Century Vines, T-Vine’s 2003 Frediani Vineyard and Louis Martini’s 2001 Monte Rosso.

Turley Wine Cellars, 2004 barrel sample, Hayne Vineyard, Napa Valley, $75
We practically ran over to Turley as soon as we entered the pavilion. We absolutely could not wait to try a famous Turley Zin. We were stunned and very, very disappointed to see that they were only offering barrel samples. Why in the world would a winery pour barrel samples at a tasting for the general public? Barrel samples typically have a heavy, vanilla flavor pasted on to the wine, and only an expert could even hazard a guess as to the quality. If you’ve never had a barrel sample, it’s fun to do once but that’s about it. We tried it anyway and possibly detected some leather and raspberry underneath the massive vanilla flavor. Maybe it will be good but we really aren’t certain.

T-Vine Cellars, 2003 Napa, Frediani Vineyard, Calistoga, $28
T-Vine is one of our favorite wineries and the Frediani does not disappoint. It was plummy, very spicy and had a velvety texture. The finish was very long. It is a prototypical Zin.

Alexander Valley Vineyards, 2004 Temptation Zin, California, $15
The Alexander Valley Zins are all very tasty. Going against their advice, I tried the Redemption Zin, then the Temptation Zin and skipped the Sin Zin altogether. It just seemed like the right thing to do, and I’m sure that Freudians will have a field day analyzing me. The Temptation Zin is a new offering from Alexander Valley and is available only at CostPlus. At $14, we recommend that you run to CostPlus and buy it. It is very jammy and has a peppery flavor running throughout the entire palate. It is super spicy. We’ve never had a zin quite like it. Jen just kept saying, “Wow!”

Ridge Vineyards
2003 Geyserville, Alexander Valley, $33
2003 (4)? Paso Robles, $26
We were very disappointed with the Ridge Zins. The Geyserville offered almost no aroma and just had too much vanilla on the palate. Other than that and a little spice, there was not much to it. The Paso Robles was even worse: flat and flabby and very overripe.

Rosenblum
2004 Richard Saurette
2004 Rockpile Road Vineyard, Rockpile, barrel sample, $30
Rosenblum provided us with our next extremely disappointing tasting. The Saurette did have a fruity aroma, but we could barely detect any flavor on the palate. The Rockpile was another barrel sample, but we were able to discern some tobacco, cedar and pepper. It might be good, but once again, we were very disappointed to be offered a barrel sample.

Rombauer, 2003 El Dorado, $25
The Rombauer Zin has been one of our favorites. However, we found it a bit flabby this time. It is juicy but not spicy and with zins, the spice seems to provide the balance against the juiciness. I’m not sure if they have changed their zin or if our tastes have changed.

Napa Wine Company, Pelissa Vineyard, Oakville, $20
Kudos to Napa Wine Company. We really enjoyed this one. It has a fruity aroma and the palate is very juicy with a long finish. There is just a hint of spice on the finish.

Murphy Goode, 2003 Liar’s Dice, Sonoma County, $20
This was another huge disappointment. A heavy vanilla flavor completely ruins it.

Seghesio Family vineyards
2004 Cortina, Dry Creek Valley, $36
2004 Home Ranch, Alexander Valley, $36
2004 Old Vine, Sonoma County, $36
The Alexander Valley and the Sonoma were both disappointing. Both were a bit juicy with not much else happening. However, we really enjoyed the Cortina. It had some mild, spicy cherry flavor and a really nice finish.

Sobon Estate
2004 Rocky Top Vineyard, Amador County, $16
2004 Lubenko Vineyard, Fiddletown, $18
The Rocky Top was one of the worst Zins I have ever tasted. I had to quickly eat some bread to get the massive vanilla flavor out of my mouth. The Fiddletown was at least drinkable but a bit overripe.

Louis M. Martini Winery
2001 Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, $22
2002 Gnarly Vines, Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, $40
We really enjoyed both of these. The Gnarly Vines was cedary and leathery with a clean finish. It had good tannins and a subtle flavor palate. The Monte Rosso was absolutely outstanding – it was juicy with cherry and tobacco and was very chewy and mouth filling. I got so excited that I wrote down “long finish” twice.

Dry Creek Vineyard
2003 Old Vine, Sonoma County, $25
2003 Somers Ranch, Dry Creek Valley, $30
I noticed that I liked a lot of Zins from the Dry Creek Valley region, so we detoured over to this tasting. The Old Vine was a vanilla bomb. The Somers Ranch was better with a bit of juice and spice but it never really took off.

Trentadue Zinfandel Port, $25
We laughed when we saw the Trentadue table. We had stopped at the winery on one of our tasting trips, and it was one of the worst tastings we have experienced. The “Champagne” they poured was so lousy we practically spit it out Exorcist style. We walked out on the tasting and did not even taste the wines we had gone there to taste – their “ports.” Anyway, I decided to try the Trentadue “port” and was pleasantly surprised. It was mild-bodied with a pleasant sweetness to it. It is a least a mediocre dessert wine.

Kunde, 2003 Century Vines, Estate, Sonoma, $25
This one is succulent and super spicy. This is a zin to be taken seriously. I have some more notes written on this one, but it was near the end of our marathon tasting and I can’t quite read them. I can only make out “unique.” Anyway, this is a good opportunity to push Kunde wines. We love their wines and find it amazing that they can put out such a wide variety of quality wines in the medium price range. They are one of the best kept secrets of Sonoma Valley.