Zinfandel, the Grape That’s Happy to Be Red All Over

Zinfandel, a grape that makes everything from inky, boldly tannic wines that only a lumberjack could love to the light, pink gulping wines my mother-in-law drinks, continues to benefit from its amiability.

It is willing to be almost anything growers and winemakers want it to be, and it grows happily in all but the very coolest locations in California. It can be made into expensive, carefully crafted wines that can compete with the greatest of any variety, yet it also produces some of the best bargains you can find in an everyday red.

A great part of Zinfandel’s versatility derives from its success in all sorts of vineyards, from the fancy dirt of the Napa Valley to the high-yielding soils of warmer, inland Lodi. In the Dry Creek Valley, for example, the leading Zinfandels are typically loaded with ripe berry flavors and elusive spicy notes. Farther south, near Paso Robles, it turns out riper and bolder but frequently with a certain softness and openness (when it’s not overloaded with brusque tannins).

Increasingly, the best source of value-priced Zinfandel is the Lodi area. Zin has a long history there but has rarely enjoyed much fame. Now, with some growers starting their own wineries and others aggressively working to place their grapes with well-known existing estates, Lodi Zinfandel is gaining recognition.

$ 2000 Bogle Vineyard “Old Vine,” California, $10. Wines from hotter areas such as Amador and Lodi, where Bogle’s old vines are located, can be heavy and dull. This one isn’t, though I wouldn’t exactly call it lithe and lively. It also shows a fair amount of ripe berry flavor and vanillin sweetness.

*** 2000 August Briggs, Napa Valley, $30. This is a dazzling Zinfandel, with rich varietal fruit and creamy, slightly toasty oak. It is high both in intensity and in balance and beauty. Medium-full in body with fairly supple tannins, it boasts deep, focused flavors of blackberries, sweet cream, vanilla and caramel. It’s tempting to drink now because of its depth and intensity, but this wine is capable of lasting a decade or more with careful cellaring.

$* 1999 Clayton Winery “Old Vine, Estate Vineyard,” Lodi, $14. This wine shows the progress being made in Lodi. It may be a little soft in structure, but its focus on ripe blackberry fruit and oaky richness comes without heat or toughness. Enjoy it now or over the next couple of years.

$* 1999 Fetzer Vineyards “Barrel Select,” Mendocino County, $11. Here is a wine that is everything a value-priced Zinfandel should be but rarely is. It’s ripe and fruity with ample body, a clear sense of berries, a bit of richness as a bonus and an open, soft construction that makes it a good “gulper” to be enjoyed in the near future.

$* 1999 Kenwood Vineyards, Sonoma County, $14. Forthright berry fruit, a bit of vanillin sweetness and a sense of measured ripeness add up to an attractive, easy-drinking Zin. It may lack the concentration of its higher-priced Sonoma County cousins, but its construction is solid and it will be a good choice to drink while you wait for those grander wines to mature.

*** 2000 Rosenblum Cellars “Rockpile Road,” Dry Creek Valley, $26. This is a gorgeous Zinfandel, but very different from the Briggs. Its ripe, concentrated black cherry fruit comes with interesting notes of caramel, dark chocolate and clove. While the wine pushes the envelope in terms of intensity, it does so without falling over into jammy, dried-berry overripeness. This is textbook Dry Creek Zinfandel.

* 2000 Rosenblum Cellars “Richard Sauret Vineyard,” Paso Robles, $17. By comparison, this wine is softer, rounder and more open--certainly not as fully concentrated as Paso Robles Zins tend to be. Still, it carries the stamp of the area in its rounded glycerin texture and is surprisingly drinkable in its youth.

1999 Terra d’Oro “Home Vineyard,” Amador County, $20. This wine is all about ripeness, yet it avoids the heat and toughness that can accompany wines of that sort--particularly when they’re from the Gold Country. Instead, this one sports a good measure of sweet, concentrated raspberry- and blackberry-like fruit set within a tannin-tamed, fleshy texture.

*

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***A world-class wine, superb by any measure, the top 1% to 2% of all wines tasted.

**An exceptional wine, well worth the effort to find, 10% to 12% of wines tasted.

*An admirable wine, tasty, focused, attractive, about 25% of wines tasted.

No Rating: The best are quite pleasant and can be good buys when moderately priced.

$Good value for the money.

Below average quality, to be avoided.

This column is based on tastings conducted by Connoisseur’s Guide to California Wine, a monthly newsletter devoted to the critical review of California and West coast wines. Readers of The Times may obtain a sample copy by sending their name and address to: CGCW, P.O. Box V, Alameda, CA 94501, by calling or faxing (510) 865-3150 or by e-mailing [email protected].