This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.
Zinfandel is California’s grape, but it was a grape I disregarded for the last decade. Of course, with iconic producers such as Ravenswood, Ridge, Rafanelli, Biale and more, I knew there were good quality Zinfandels in the market. But as a whole, every time I thought about Zinfandel, I thought about big, jammy, high alcohol wines, some with residual sugar, and ran in the other direction — until now.
After spending four days immersing myself in Zinfandel at the Zinfandel Advocates and Producers’ ZinEX, I found the pendulum has swung back to the middle. There were so many balanced wines, it’s was time to revisit Zinfandel as a wine to drink.
From well-known labels to lesser-known brands, Zinfandel has one thing in common — the winemakers share a love for this temperamental grape that some compared to Pinot Noir. Like Pinot Noir, Zinfandel is a difficult variety to grow. The berries are big and thin-skinned. It is a grape that tends to over-crop, ripen unevenly and easily oxidizes. It buds early, is subject to frost concerns and ripens during the busiest time of harvest, all of which make it a challenging wine to make.
Another challenge is that Zinfandel has a propensity for residual sugar. But Zinfandel is a grape that shows a sense of place. According to Artezin Wines winemaker Randle Johnson, “it is a lot of work with a great reward. In many ways, Zinfandel is an art.”
