The tag line for this year's ZAP Zinfandel Festival was "unmask your passion"; I don't think my passion for zin has ever been masked, but it is rarely engaged as fully - one might even say, zinfanatically - as it is during this annual event at Fort Mason in San Francisco. I revealed my particular passions for specific wines and wineries I'd enjoyed in an earlier post about the 2008 ZAP Zinfandel Festival. This year, I discovered some new wineries and wines that I really like, but was disappointed that some of the wines I'd enjoyed last year were not as good this year ... and even more disappointed that some of those wines were gone by the time I got to their booths.
One of the surprising discoveries this year was a number of really good wines around the $20 price point (+/- $5). Generally, it has seemed to me that most Zinfandels have either been around $15 or around $30 (or more). The Cline Sonoma Zinfandel was the first wine I encountered in this price range a few years ago - I thought it was well worth the extra $5 or so it cost compared with the Ancient Vines, and probably a better value, overall, then some of their more expensive offerings. I'm glad to see more high quality wines emerge in this category.
Last year, I came away with a pretty good sense of my top 5 favorites - in rank order - as well as a list of honorable mentions. This year, I wasn't able to come up with a linear ordering, and so will instead offer an unordered set of my favorite wines, but will at least subcategorize them according to price ranges. As with last year, I won't include any specific notes about particular flavor or aroma characteristics of any wine, this is just intended as a personal list of favorites (which may or may not be useful to anyone else). As with all the wines I write about - and I'm chagrined to suddenly discover that I have only posted one entry in my wine blog since the entry for the 2008 ZAP Zinfandel Festival (!) - most, if not all, of the wines listed below can be characterized as big, bold, fruit-forward, full-bodied and chewy.
Great Zinfandels in the $15-25 price range
Macchia was one of my favorite wineries last year, and they impressed me again this year. I liked all five of the wines they were pouring, but the standouts for me were the 2007 Mischievous, Lodi Old Vine ($18), the 2007 Victorious ($30) - aka "Boobylicious" (mantra: "save the tata's"), and which I'll include in this price category because $5 of each bottle purchased is donated to support cancer research - and the 2006 Dangerous, a port of sorts ($25). As with post-festival period last year, I plan to order [at least] a mixed case that includes some of the other wines they make (but were not pouring).
Jessie's Grove 2006 Vintner's Choice ($22): Jessie's Grove is the winery that produces the wonderfully named and widely distributed Earth, Zin and Fire ($16) which I also like (as I did the more expensive Westwind at $32), but the Vintner's Choice - which, unfortunately, does not appear on the winery web site - seemed like the best overall quality price ratio (QPR) offering in their lineup.
St. Amant was one of my exciting new discoveries this year. Both of their wines were outstanding ... and within the magical $15-25 price range: the 2007 Mohr-Fry Ranch, Old Vine, Lodi ($18) and the Marian's Vineyard, Old Vine, Lodi ($24). David Sanchez, a ZAP volunteer from Eno Wines that I met last year when he kindly gave me a glass to use after witnessing a woman steal mine at 4:30 (with only 30 minutes to spare), was the one who recommended this winery when I saw him outside the pavilion.
Another new find - in this category - was J. Rickards 2006 Ancestors ($22).
Opolo was one of my favorites last year. This year, I was not quite as impressed across the board, but did find a great value that I don't remember from last year:the 2006 Summit Creek ($18).
I was also less impressed this year than I was last year with Pezzi King; the 2005 Old Vine that I'd liked so well last year seemed too soft to me this year. I did, however, like their bargain zinfandel, the 2007 Riley's Red ($16) ... though perhaps not as much as the guy in front of me, who bought 10 cases of the wine on the spot.
Great Zinfandels in the $25+ price range
As was the case last year, all of Robert Biale's wines were very good; this year, I particularly liked the 2007 Old Crane Ranch ($42) and the 2007 Varozza Vineyard ($42), both from St. Helena.
There were three exciting new discoveries in this price category. One was Mantra 2006 Old Vines Reserve ($30). A side-by-side comparison between the 2005 and 2006 vintages confirmed my impression from last year that 2006 was a stronger vintage ... although I was not able to make a similar judgment between the 2006 and 2007 vintages this year.
I've been a fan of Rockpile wines for a few years now, and was delighted to discover that the Mauritson booth (also recommended by David Sanchez) was pouring two Rockpile wines (and their web site lists nine (!)). Although they had not been on my radar last year, they certainly will be in future years. I enjoyed all three of their wines: the 2006 Dry Creek Valley ($27), 2006 Rockpile Cemetary Vineyard ($39) and 2007 Rockpile Ridge Vineyard ($35).
The search for the perfect Rockpile also took me to another new discovery: Valdez Family Winery. All three of their wines were also fantastic: 2006 Rockpile Road ($38), 2006 Lancel Creek, Russian River Valley ($36) and 2006 Simoncini, Dry Creek Valley ($35). Looks like I'll have to join their mailing list if I want to order any.
Howell Mountain was a pleasant re-discovery. I'd tried a Howell Mountain Zinfandel at a restaurant in San Jose back in 2003, and I don't remember the details, but remember thinking it was a highly unusual, and not altogether enjoyable, variation on the Zinfandel theme. This year, I tried them again, and still think they have a rather unique flavor, but I found "the hallmark exotic character, with white pepper and Asian spices" in the 2006 Black Sears ($38) to be much more enjoyable than my first encounter with their wines 6 years ago.
I was a bit disappointed when I got to the booths of two of my favorite wineries from last year. Edmeades had run out of everything but their Perli Zinfandel ($30), which was good but not nearly as good as their outstanding Chase Vineyard wine last year, and Hartford was out of everything at 4:00 ... and they've increased their prices 10% from last year :-(.
At the 2008 Zinfandel Festival, I shared my passion for Zinfandel with my wife, Amy, and our good friend, Carol, both of whom enjoy Zinfandel, but not quite at the same level of fanaticism as I tend to exhibit. This year, I was delighted to share my passion for Zinfandel with another good friend, Dan Oestreich, who was better able to keep up with my zinful "lust" for most of the day ... though we did get separated for a while during the last hour, when I kicked into high gear, frantically trying to taste as many of the remaining wines as I could (especially after the disappointments I'd experienced with my aforementioned earlier favorites).
In addition to being a fellow Zinfandel appreciator, Dan is also a fellow blogger, sharing inspiring insights and experiences on the theme of unfolding leadership. [He is also the photographer who snapped the photo shown to the right.] Dan noticed my irritation toward the end of the festival - the shadow side of my zinfanaticism, perhaps. It started with booths running out of wine early, but was greatly exacerbated by people breaking glasses inside and outside the two Fort Mason pavilions (!). He invited me to write an entire blog post on the topic, sensing that maybe there was something deeper in this shadow that I may want (or at least be willing) to delve into - and few people I know delve as deeply into their lights and shadows as Dan does regularly on his blog. I agree this could be an interesting and enlightening topic, but I will leave it for another post - and perhaps another blog (my main blog, Gumption). For now, I'll simply note that I consider this late-breaking pandemic of breaking glasses toward the end of these Zinfandel festivals to be childish, irresponsible and dangerous, and I hope that the festival isn't required to find a new site due to the inconsideration of a relatively few of its attendees.
However, while I'm on the topic of zinfanatical peeves, I'll note one more. The Zinfandel Festival program lists a number of wine tasting tips on page 48. One of these appears to be aligned with - and about as widely followed - as "keep right except to pass" guidelines on multi-lane highways, or instructions by flight attendants to step out of the aisle as early as possible to allow others to pass when settling into an airplane seat. At the Zin fest, this expression of what should be simple, common courtesy and conscientiousness was expressed as follows:
Alert winemakers and winery representatives sometimes did identify bottlenecks and gently guide the tasters who were creating them - i.e., who were not following these procedures - so that others could make more efficient use of the relatively short time allocated for tasting. However, it was often frustrating to try to reach the tables of some of the more popular wineries. I've fantasized, at times, about having a full-sized "keep right except to pass" sign I could flash up to cars as I passed them on the right ... maybe I can make up a "keep right except to fill your glass" sign to bring with me to future festivals.
I'll end off with two more "tips" of my own. If you're in a group, and several people in the group are interested in sampling wines at a crowded booth, send in a small number of wine tasting representatives - scouts - with multiple glasses to fill and then taste from a distance when they return with their bounty. Dan and I adopted this practice toward the end of the festival, when I would bring his glass and mine in to the tables for wine pours as I was increasingly focusing on efficiency as the clock was running out.
The other tip has to do with extending the time on the clock: I joined ZAP (Zinfandel Appreciators & Producers) this year for $40, which enabled me to purchase two tickets for a discounted price ($49 rather than $59) and earlier admission (1:00pm rather than 2:00pm). This was a very worthwhile investment - $20 (net) for 25% more time - and one I will make again for next year's festival ... assuming I can find any friends who are [still] willing to share my Zinfanaticism.
Joe, thanks for the confessions about your zinaticism. Your review is awesome! Surely, the event was truly enough to bring out anybody's shadow side. I'm looking forward to that next post about the dark...and to our next trip to the ZAP festival. Best to you, my friend.
Posted by: Dan | February 03, 2009 at 08:04 PM
As a past companion in appreciation at big red wine festivals, I want you to know the zeal you exhibit enchants me. I like living fully and you my friend are a practitioner of this art form . . . Carol
Posted by: Carol | February 03, 2009 at 09:03 PM