10,000 Zinfandel Maniacs Attend ZAP 2004
Like last year, I attended Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (ZAP) at Fort Mason in San Francisco. The festival has exploded to almost 300 wineries this year compared to only 22 wineries twelve years ago. To the dismay of wine geeks, each year attendance increases and becomes more crowded. Some folks proclaimed that it is becoming a "singles, yuppie, drunk fest." Thankfully, Alder and I attended the less crowded, trade portion.
As always, the ZAP showcases the versatility of Zinfandel. It can be made as restrained and focused style like Ridge or a big, robust, fruit-bomb like Turley. From what I tasted this year, a majority were made the opulent, over-the-top style. Several I tasted were bordering 17% alcohol. From a winemaking perspective, I prefer the claret style like Ridge, Hendry, and Brown but enjoy the big, bold, deep extraction wines of Carlisle and Novy.
Some of this year's highlights were:
- Ballentine's 1999 Reserve
- Brown Estate Vineyards
- Carlisle Winery- esp. Carlisle Vineyard; and Dry Creek which includes Teldeschi Vineyard
- Cedarville Vineyard- 2002 Estate
- Charter Oak Winery- Monte Rosso; Napa
- Copain- 2001 Arrowhead Mountain
- Dashe Cellars- Big River Zin;
- Novy- Carlisle Vineyard; and Russian River- which is a steal at $19
- Outpost Estate Wines- Thomas Brown continues to make great Zin there and Chiarello Estate.
- Rosenblum Cellars- 2002 Monte Rosso
- Side by side tasting of 2002 Downing Family Vineyards Zinfandel from screw cap vs. cork. The wine bottled with a screw cap had more primary fruit and was brighter.