Zinfandel: Why Almost Everyone Loves It

In Tuesday's Napa News, Rhoda Stewart the the author of "A Zinfandel Odyssey", challenges some recent criticism against big bombastic zinfandels.

She writes:

During my years of researching "A Zinfandel Odyssey," grapegrowers and winemakers alike told me that the reasons for the huge attendance at the annual zinfandel barrel tasting event in San Francisco each January were directly the result of the delicious, ripe, fruity flavors of zinfandel wine made from physiologically mature fruit.

She continues,

One of the winemakers who gets much of the credit for resurrecting -- and refining -- this huge style of zinfandel is Helen Turley. "I am looking for very ripe flavors, soft tannins, and full body. This leads to a highly extracted and moderately high to high-alcohol wine (14 to 16 percent), but one that does not taste hot because it is in balance," she said. Joining her brother, Larry, in 1993 as consulting winemaker for his start-up Turley Wine Cellars, she showed him what happened in the Moore Vineyard situated on the eastern benchlands of Napa when the grapes achieved physiological ripeness. "All sorts of exotic, oriental flavors start turning up at 25 degrees and 26 degrees Brix that were not there at lower Brix," she said.

Turley Wine Cellars zinfandels, made by winemaker Ehren Jordan since 1996, are legendary for their ripe, luscious, highly extracted style, with alcohol content usually between 15 percent and 18 percent.

Profiling the figureheads of zinfandel, she writes:

Joel Peterson, founder of Ravenswood, believes that people can get too hung up on alcohol content in wines. "The object is not the alcohol. Winemaking is about ripe fruit, and alcohol is a product of the ripeness of the fruit. There are many elements that go into the physiological ripeness of fruit. The least important is sugar content. Part of the glory of zinfandel is that it can produce a fair number of exotic styles that are really good. That is part of the appeal of the variety, and what makes it unique."
Paul Draper, winemaster for Ridge Vineyards, summed up his appreciation for zinfandel in this way: "I know of no other table wine that is so purely delicious. Zinfandel has given me more sensuous pleasure than any other wine. Zinfandel is a rich, fruity, spicy wine. It can at times be a side dish to the main course. So if your preference is for a lighter style of table wine, you may find zinfandel a little hard to take.