Well, another ZAP has come and gone (just in case the acronym is not instantly recognizable, you can read a previous explanatory post here), and I have to tell you, in conversation with Paul Draper on Monday, he was absolutely over the moon about this year’s event, saying he thought it was just about one of the best ever, and not only was I of course very happy to hear that, but I am also hopeful that if you attended, your experience was equally positive!
Judging by the post-Zap write-ups out there, it looks as if Paul wasn’t the only one to have found this year’s Zinapalooza to be a rather notably excellent occurence, so, for those of you who were there and wish to relive the magic, and/or those of you who weren’t but want a retroactive taste, here’s a quick sampling of some of the great write-ups that followed this year’s Zinfandel Festival:
It’s probably not suprising that one of the most thorough posts comes to us from Alder Yarrow over at Vinography, whose article is entitled ”The Best Zinfandels in California: Tasting at ZAP 2010.” A heady title to say the least, and of course one man’s opinion is but one man’s opinion, but his is an opinion I always consider it a privilege to be privy to, and so I’m doubly pleased to find that our wines found a more-than-respectable place on his tasting roster. Interestingly enough perhaps, and certainly a good sign for the future, is that our as-of-yet unreleased 2008 Pagani Ranch was the top-scoring Ridge wine! To see Alder’s full run-down, click here.
John Cesano has contributed an equally thorough post-Zap wrap-up on his blog, made all the more interesting for the fact that he sat in on our very own Eric Baugher’s zinfandel talk:
Friday, January 28, at 10:30 in the morning, 150 or so gathered in the Peacock Court Ballroom at the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill in San Francisco for the 9th Annual Flights!: A Showcase of Zinfandels seated wine tasting.
Five winemakers of Zinfandel would talk about Zinfandel blends, field blends and in-winery blends, the history and future of Zinfandel blends, and the place of Zinfandel blends in the market.
You can read the full spread of his thoughts and observations here.
And of course, you can return to The Gray Market Report (see previous reference here) for some excellent follow-up on ZAP wines, including a very nice nod to our 2007 Paso Robles. The full post is here. And just for kicks, you can see a reasonably and expectedly singular photo of W. Blake Gray and Alder Yarrow (well, their zinfandel-coated tongues, really) right here.
I’ll conclude with a couple of photos taken by our very own Sean Yamamoto, just in case you’ve never for yourself experienced the inspired lunacy that can be ZAP; I like to think of these two pics as expressing the Before And After The Flood aspects of this wonderfully decadent event. Cheeers!
Before The Flood!
After The Flood!
