What's ZAP?

The 1997 zinfandel report

by David Marglin

Zinfandel is a unique wine -- and, fittingly, it has a unique trade group. Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP) is an alliance that encompasses not only wineries but also wine drinkers who consume (sometimes inordinate quantities of) zinfandel; it tells you something about the enthusiasm this wine generates that membership right now is about 200 producers and nearly 5000 advocates.

They are a fervent lot. Once a year, in San Francisco, ZAP holds a major tasting of zins from all over California (the grape is now grown in five states and three countries, but California is still home to the world's killer zins). I had a chance to visit this past January's tasting, and believe me, it is a religious experience. Many of the winemakers are on hand to offer samples of their better older bottles, as well as new releases -- some of which are tasted right from the barrel. Every producer shows up with a bottle or two in hand, and people pour away, vying in a modest way to see whose wine will be gone first. The producers' luncheon I attended was held at the Sutter Home winery, which has the dubious distinction of having pioneered the pinkish bubble-gum quaff known as white zinfandel, although the winery has also made a fine red zin for more than 25 years.

UNCORKED

Click here for a rundown of wine tastings, dinners, and events.

If ZAP's electricity and enthusiasm seem distinctly American, it's only appropriate: according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), which keeps track of these things, zinfandel is the only grape unique to America. ZAP maintains a Web site with a short history of the grape (check it out at http://www.wine.com/zap or http://www.gangofpour.com/zap99). According to this version, a Long Island nurseryman named George Gibbs imported zinfandel in the 1820s from the imperial collection in Vienna; there is a record of Boston nurseryman Samuel Perkins advertising the "zinfendal" vine for sale in 1832. Over the decade that followed, "zinfindal" became a popular table grape here in the Northeast, grown under glass. It was brought to California from Massachusetts in the 1850s; during the California Gold Rush, the grape was widely planted because it grew abundantly as a head-pruned vine.

Zinfandel's relationship to other wine grapes has long been a source of contention. People are now pretty sure that it's related to Northeastern Italy's primitivo di gioia -- this was "proved" in 1994 by Carole Meredith of the University of California at Davis, which has the US's leading wine program -- but last year, Meredith also "proved" that zinfandel is related to, but is not the same as, a grape from Croatia called plavac mali. But one should never argue with the ATF (see Waco).

In the popular market, thanks to Sutter Home, zin became best known for its "blush" version, white zin. (Sutter Home can darn well afford to host plenty of lunches, since the winery made five million cases of the bubble-gum juice in 1998 alone.) The first truly magnificent year for zinfandel as a red wine was 1990: that year's vintage of big, pungent, long-lived reds helped lift red zin from "hobby wine" status to the ranks of the major red varietals. The following year, Storybook Mountain Vineyards owner Richard Seps founded ZAP along with representatives from eight other wineries, Sutter Home among them. When the first ZAP tasting was held in San Francisco in March 1992, it attracted 22 wineries and no more than about 30 consumers. Still, that first tasting brought together a group of winemakers from Ridge, Rosenblum, Ravenswood, and Storybook, a winery devoted exclusively to zin and one of its finest producers since the early 1980s. The second ZAP tasting, in January 1993, drew more than 40 wineries -- and it was packed with zin drinkers. Now the ZAP event is one of the highlights of the wine year, and red zinfandel, which had no real market as recently as 1992, is California's number-one red-wine grape, with more than 50,000 acres planted.

So how do 1997 zins compare with earlier vintages? Well, when I last covered zinfandel in this column ("Uncorked," Styles, November 21, 1997), I noted that 1994 and 1995 were top years. The 1996 wines were hit-and-miss; a lot of them taste overripe to me, and it was not a bountiful vintage. Nineteen-ninety-seven, on the other hand, was a big year: yields were up almost 20 percent, meaning that there was a lot more wine and prices remained constant. Unfortunately, the '97s don't hold a candle to the '94s and '95s, though they're certainly above-average wines, better on the whole than the '96s.

Personally, I like zins four and five years out; if you try a '95 or '94, I doubt you will be disappointed. That said, there is something really refreshing about drinking young zin, and if you want a fruit explosion -- or if you're having food that demands something big -- don't shy away from the 1997s. There's a ton of good wine on the shelves.

**¹/₂ Cline 1997 California ($11.49, University Wines). Normally I'm not a fan of blends of grapes from vastly different regions, which is what the "California" designation signifies. But for Cline, the blending seems to have worked out fine. Big blackberries, lots of American oak, and that cedary scent on the nose. Blows away comparably priced '96s.

***¹/₂ 1996 Peachy Canyon "Westside" (Bauer, $18.99). A doozy, with lots of cassis, a long, opulent finish, and none of the "overripeness" that plagues many '96 zins. Should work well with barbecued meat or rich, spicy foods (jambalaya!). Drink now.

***¹/₂ Ridge 1997 Sonoma Station ($21.99, University Wines). Deep purple color, with a woody, fresh spring-day bouquet -- a friend described this wine as "dewy." It's a field blend, with 75 percent zin, and other grapes: in descending order, carignane, petite sirah, and Alicante Bouschet. Massive, opulent, soft on the mouth, with loads of oak, but this wine will balance out nicely with a couple of months in the bottle. Another winner from Mr. Zin himself, Paul Draper.

David Marglin can be reached at wine[a]phx.com.

---

The Uncorked archive

---