Sommeliers the world over have turned their backs on stocking their cellars with that same old swill from Bordeaux. Forget Burgundy, no one can afford it anyways. Collectors are stocking their cellars with the hottest collectible wine in 2012 — Zinfandel.
Zinfandel, known for its aging potential is taking over America’s hearts and minds. This is an election year after all. Buy American, don’t export jobs overseas and for Godsake drink American wines.
Why would you build a vertical of first growths when you can buy a case of high octane Zin for the cost of one bottle of Lafite? After all, Zinfandel is the indigenous American grape, right? Meh. Not really.
Zinfandel isn’t really native to America, and it’s not even the artist formerly known as Primitivo. Zinfandel can be traced back to Croatia where it was first recognized as Crljenak. Crljenak is the mothership that both Primitivo and Zinfandel come from. So how did Zin become synonymous with being the American varietal? Long story, too long to tell here. Basically, a guy by the name of George Gibbs brought a bunch of cuttings from the Imperial Austrian plant collection to the U.S. in 1829. From there, the cuttings made their way to California where Italian immigrants said, “let’s drop it like it’s hot” and pretty much owned the grape from there on out.
That’s why you hear about so many “old vine” Zins because many Zinfandel vineyards were planted in the late 1800′s in northern California. Nowadays, Old Vine Zin is associated with quality.
Surely anyone who’s actually tried to “cellar” Zinfandel knows this whole post is complete horse shit. Zinfandel doesn’t age. It’s meant to be drunk young, and you’ll be drunk too when Zinfandel is drunk young. But not all Zinfandel tastes like Robitussin mixed with Vodka. In recent vintages, winemakers in California have listened to consumers and have begun crafting Zins with balance and structure. There’s many that are still too over the top, but stylistically Zin is returning to center.
It’s no longer like getting a Bruce Lee roundhouse kick to the mouth, now you can actually pair Zin with food. Natural food pairings such as pizza, pork and BBQ fare are still good options but now the Zins won’t overpower the food. Some producers I like who are making varietally correct Zinfandels are wineries like Ridge, Chateau Montelena, Spann Vineyards and Portalupi. These wineries are putting out bottles around 14.5% ALC (or less) and in some cases, blending in some Petit Sirah or Carignan.
Zinfandel seems to be a wine for “the people”. It’s not pretentious, it’s just there to enjoy….while young preferably. I took the question to social media sites and asked people what they liked or didn’t like about Zinfandel. Here’s a sampling of answers:
Facebook comments
comments on Google+
Comments on Twitter
The merits of Zinfandel will most likely be debated for the foreseeable future. It’s one of the few red grapes that doesn’t really gain anything with age, yet remains popular because of its accessibility in its youth. What do you think about Zinfandel? Please let your comments below. And if you’re going to ZAP, enjoy the event. Make sure to wear diapers.
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
