Younger people (under age 45?) say zinfandel is a dark red wine that's bold, brash, thickly rich, soft and sweet-ish; that has slightly Port-y aromas and high alcohol content; and that should be sipped immediately after release by itself. Food is optional.
Older people (over age 60?) tell you zinfandel ought to be a medium-weight red wine that's balanced to go with food and is even better after a couple of years in the bottle.
Many younger zin lovers crave bigger wines. Older former zin drinkers are disgusted with what it's become.
(It's that crowd between 45 and 60 that I can't figure out!)
As wine drinkers become wine lovers, they can take one of two paths while traversing the Zinfandel Highway. One path leads to Port, sweet and high in alcohol. The other leads to claret, which is what zin used to be.
Claret, an older term, refers to red wines that are similar to the way cabernet sauvignon used to be made, with lower alcohol and dry enough to warrant putting it with food. That style is hard to find today.
The passion that some zinfandel lovers display now is hard to comprehend. I'm old enough to recall the amazing versatility of this grape. Its greatest appeal was that it made lots of different kinds of wines, all interesting.
It made a delightful dry, nearly pink wine ("white zin"); a sparkling wine; and, best of all, a light red that had all the charm of Beaujolais, with berry flavors and the crispness to work as a foil to pizza.
It was Chianti with more fruit.
Most of those wines are gone today. The minimania over this grape (though it's waning) still has obsessive devotees seeking bigger, richer, more intensely flavored zins than ever before.
It has been 40 years since we first began to see this new style of zinfandel replace the older, more restrained style.
In his superb 1988 "Notes on a California Cellarbook," (now sadly out of print), Napa Valley author Bob Thompson said of zin: "A school of drinkers wants its Zinfandel inky dark, astringent enough to tan hides, and freighted with 14% or 15% alcohol, the sort of wine sometimes labeled Late Harvest. Nothing, the anointeds say, digs in and battles hot sauces and gamey meats on such even terms. Maybe the claim is true for linebackers and their spiritual kin, but I have fallen asleep too many times in my bear-knuckle stew to take pleasure from such stuff."
Thompson was right: Too much intensity makes clumsy wines.
And that's precisely what consumers seem to be saying. Overcome by weight and too much alcohol, some have begun to turn their backs on today's biggest zins.
The zin exodus is a reaction to zins of the 1990s, when Thompson's derision of 14% to 15% alcohol wasn't enough for some people. It had to be a lot more than that! So 17% became the new 15% -- massive brutes with astringency from starboard to port and the strength to remove rust from a 1949 Ford trailer hitch.
Worst of all, many sell for $50 or more, mainly to those who prefer wine that's akin to 10W-40 motor oil.
In the hands of skilled winemakers, zinfandel still makes a lighter-styled red, generally from slightly cooler climates.
To find milder zins, find the alcohol listed on the label. There are many at 14.5%.
Wine of the Week: 2017 Carol Shelton "Wild Thing" Zinfandel, Mendocino County ($19) -- The "wild" in this name refers to the spice components, with raspberries and pomegranates. It has only 14.5% alcohol and is delicious. It would work with most red-sauced Italian dishes. The 2018 will be out soon and may well be better (I haven't tasted it), but 2018 was a cooler vintage.
To find out more about Dan Berger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
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19 comments:
That was funny.
I'm not a wine connoisseur, but I know enough about wine to engage in a casual conversation.
When Zinfandel exploded during the late 1980s, I didn't know what to think about it.
To me it wasn't real wine ... but more like "pink champale".
I always thought it tasted like a blend of Miller beer, malt liquor, fruit juice, and a shot of Canada Dry Soda.
My ex used to raise Hell about how much beer I drank watching the Saints game on a Sunday afternoon ...
but she always had two bottles of Zinfandel and a four pack of the old Bartles and Jaymes wine coolers.
That remains another mystery ... what really is a "wine cooler" ?
4:40 You're thinking of WHITE zinfandel. The zinfandel to which he's referring is more the dark red color of a Cabernet. Different wine.
Let's get something out of the way: As the saying goes, "Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel."
Genuine zin derives from the Italian grape called "primitivo," which we believe was first grown in the Balkans.
There are many great zins on the market, and $20 is the sweet spot, up to $25. Freak Show, Seven Deadly Zins, the Prisoner, and many more. I recommend Kats on Fortification. I shop there, but I don't work there.
Keep it up, KF. You will never civilize the trolls, but you have other folks who care about the finer things as much as you do.
My understanding is white zin is the trash saturated with sugar.
But WHY is white Zin pink? The curious want to know!
to 7 ;13.....cause its made from a zinfandel grape which is red. those grapes are skinned and then pressed . the skin is where the color is. after they are skinned , the wine comes out pink. but they call it '' white'' zinfandel. white zin was the biggest selling wine in mississippi all through the 70s, 80s, and early 90s.
friggin' winos
The white Zin always got her pants off!
Used to sit on the curb behind the barracks at FT. Sam in San Antonio and eat Churches fried chicken with lots of Jalapeños on the side and drink Boons Farm straight from the bottle. We had to do it out there because the barracks was full of Mamajuana smoke, which does not go well with a flirty wine like Boons Farm.
Boy, those were the days! Life got much worse after that for many reasons, one of which was I lost my taste for Boons Farm.
Oh well, we can't go back to the good old days, can we?
10:16 - Yes, you can go back in time. But when you do, you must correctly spell Boones Farm if you expect to wake the spirits.
Fred Sanford made up his own special drink on Sanford & Son. Mixed champagne and Ripple......called it Champipple.
I thought Claret was simply the name given to Bordeaux by the English.
Went o deer camp one time about 20 years ago. did not bring enough beer. My wife had left a couple bottles of white zin. drank it like beer. Could not get out of bed the next day. Had to tell all the other guys I had the flu. Never even sipped it since.
White Zin-the bane of wine snobs everywhere, is responsible for saving the grape here in America. During the late 70's and early 80's the Old Vine Zinfandel grapes were being ripped up in California to plant Merlot and Chardonnay which were the up and coming hot varietals. White Zin-cheap and easy to make (no expensive oak barrels, no ageing before selling) became the hottest selling wine during the late 80's and wineries quickly realized how valuable those old zinfandel vines had become. This saved the vines and led to the Old Vine (RED) Zins that you get today.
What it is, is a fru-fru drink for girly men.
Is this a new regular column Kingfish?
Yup. I picked up a couple. Going to run this one every week as a nice change of pace. Added Salena Zito and Michael Barone, people I consider to be true political reporters as in the days of Novak although not the level of Jack Anderson. There were several wine columns to choose from but I chose Berger because his seemed the most practical for the readers. I mean, we live in Mississippi where distribution is state controlled. Wine columns about wines that most wine drinkers here won't have access to are useless for our purposes.
Berger lost me when he described white zinfandel as "delightful".
Carol Shelton's Wild Thing Zin is available locally at Corkscrew and Fondren Cellars
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