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A Mazzoni Island of the Mind ~or~ First Friday at Monte Bello!

May 3, 2013

Greetings!

It’s May 3rd, and it’s First Friday at Monte Bello!

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For our May edition of this very special monthly event, we will be celebrating the release of the new 2009 Mazzoni Home Ranch Zinfandel! The 2009 is one of the most notably zinfandel-forward Mazzoni offerings in recent years, and while it shows all the compact rusticity and culinarily companionable spice and acidity we’ve come to expect from this old-vine vineyard, it does so in a comparatively lusher, more fruit-driven fashion, and as such, is already showing beautifully with just two years in the bottle.

09ZMZ1-front

And dig this!

We’ll be pouring the 2009 in a two-vintage vertical with its predecessor, the 2008 Mazzoni!

08ZMZ-front-01

This is the last chance we’ll have the ’08 on hand as a current release, making this an especially rarefied tasting opportunity.

Making today, a good day to be a member.

So remember, if you’re a member, remember:

First Friday!

~

First Friday at Monte Bello
Date: 5/3/2013

May 3rd ~ 4-7pm

Please join us on the first Friday of each month for an evening affair of delicious wines and small bites. While this is a Member Event, we are more than happy to host guests of our members as well! We’ll have some delicious small bites on offer for your enjoyment.

Members with shipments available for pick up at this event:
ATP – Monthly
ATP – Consolidated
(be sure to note that you are picking up on your RSVP)

Eventbrite - First Friday at Monte Bello - May 2013

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For a bit of history on the Mazzoni Home Ranch:

zmz

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Posted in Carignane, Events & Photographs, Food & Wine Pairing, History, Monte Bello, Special Offerings, Tasting Events/Opportunities, Tasting Flights, Tasting Notes, Tasting Rooms, Varietals & Blends, Vintage Wine Labels, Wine & Food Pairing, Wine Clubs, Zinfandel | 1 Comment »

To Dream In Triple Cream: “It’s Not You, It’s Brie,” Kirstin Jackson, & Assemblage Monte Bello

April 25, 2013

If it’s not me, but brie …

then aren’t I free,

to eschew my filigree

of daintily

demurring second portionry

when said bounty

is offered me?

~

This is the way the mind runs whilst reading Kirstin Jackson’s fabulous book “It’s Not You, It’s Brie.”

In my estimation, the book is one of the most canny reconciliations of conspiratorial low-brow boho sass and high-brow hard-core food-nerd knowledge to be published in recent years; meaning, it is a pleasure to learn this much, and I applaud Kirstin for writing it, and I applaud the good folks at Perigree/Penguin for releasing it.

And more than that even, I applaud Kirstin, and I applaud us, for working it out for Kirstin to join us for Assemblage Monte Bello this weekend!

It's Not You, It's Brie ...

It’s Not You, It’s Brie …

Kirstin has in fact already made her presence felt; she curated all the cheeses for our Component Tasting back in March, and is doing so for Assemblage Monte Bello this weekend, and for our Final Assemblage Event in May as well. But it’s THIS weekend that the magic truly happens, because Kirstin Jackson herself will be joining us and our guests for the event! She’ll be here to mingle, talk cheese, sign books, and perhaps (see below!) offer tips on the proper time and use for AquaNet Hairspray.

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I had a chance to correspond with Kirstin Jackson recently, about important and vital matters related to the worlds of wine and food, wine and cheese, cheese and everything, everything and everything else, and it is my pleasure to share some highlights with you here:

–Is there a line in your book that you remember first penning, that is still in the book now, in its exact original form (meaning, totally unrevised), that you are particularly fond of?

 Besides the blurbs by important people in cheese like Janet Fletcher or Max McCalman that I took hours to write? Hmmm…

 I actually got very lucky with my editor. Though she let me know if I needed to better explain something, she and the copy editors let me keep most the original wording. I do like the following lines. They actually let me use all of them. It’s about a cheese style- very aged, old, dry, pressed cheeses.

 “If one was ever to be threatened with cheese, it would be with a Strong and Hard cheese style. A gangster, a corrupt politician, or a mom whose kid was just bullied walks into a pub. They see who did them wrong sitting in the center of the room. Right in front of everybody, they saunter over to the culprit, lift their hands above their head, and slam a dry, heavy wheel of Vella Dry Jack or Achandinah’s Capricious on the table only inches away from their enemy’s faced. Necks snap around to see what made the sound like a wooden guillotine crashing into its base. Occasionally the mom or other angry party stabs a pocketknife in to the cheese for emphasis, but regardless, the threat is served. These cheeses are serious.”

–You mention Pat Benatar in your book. Do you have a favorite song? And did you ever use AquaNet?

 I keep it classic with Pat. Love is a Battlefield all the way. It’s when you get the best use of her opera training and her strategic move of using tights as pants. I use AquaNet at Halloween. 1940 hairstyles or hair metal bangs require it.

–After Yuba Mushroom blintzes, what would be your NEXT favorite pairing with Toma?

Wine. Keeping it close to home, an aged Ridge Chardonnay, Grenache or Zin would be lovely.

–Have you ever worked with/studied with/read Alan Dundes?

Yes. He was my anthropology senior thesis advisor at Cal before he passed away. Wonderful, old school folklorist and hilarious man with tremendous energy. He helped a lot of people realize the importance of folklore in everyday life.

–You describe Bellwether San Andreas as being a somewhat not ideal pairing partner for a plusher varietal like zinfandel; how do you think it would fair with an older-vine field-blended zinfandel like our Geyserville; a blend that features a notable percentage of carignane in the blend?

I really like that idea. Aged Zins and Rhones are great friends to sheep milk cheeses like San Andreas or Pepato. They hang out all the time. The key is to have a subtly fruited wine with good acidity when pairing with a young pecorino style like Bellwether’s, otherwise it will overpower the cheese.

–Do you like jazz?

I do like jazz. But these days I’m confused about what is actually is. And not like, is Nicki Minaj still hip hop in her raver phase?… It’s that I heard Robert Glasper speak about his Black Radio experiments (which are awesome), and I find myself wondering now where jazz starts and stops. If it does. Black Radio sounded like great live hip hop to me, with a bit of jazz. Which live hip hop often has, I mean it’s always been part of hip hop, it inspired it, but, I wonder what else is jazz is that I don’t know about.

–Are you working on another book? If yes, can you tell us a secret about it? And if not, then what’s next for you?

I’m still taking it step by step on the book level. I’d like to look a little bit beyond the United States though, so when I come back to write about domestic cheese again, I’ll come back fresh. Or maybe with a little Euro mixed in?

–What’s the coolest pair of shoes you own, and do  you wear them when you teach cheese classes?

Coolest? I’m not sure. I like to wear my grey cowboy boots a lot, and often to classes.

–Why doesn’t Limburger sell in California?

Most people here didn’t grow up on it. Its deliciousness was part of the pub culture for years in heavily Germanic areas like Wisconsin and Illinois (the cheese was originally German), when people would eat it slathered on dark bread with a side of beer. Prohibition changed the habit, but the taste remained an acquired one, mainly in midwestern states. We don’t understand the pungent thrill of it yet here.

–If the perfect time to drink a Monte Bello is when the primary fruit is still subtly present, but architecture has receded and allowed secondary character to emerge, but the wine is still fresh and forward, with only the slightest foreshadowing of the most overtly rustic and tertiary flavor components being felt, then how aged is exactly just right for Franklin’s Teleme?

It depends on how funky you like it. It will never develop those fierce washed-rind tertiary flavors like Limburger will in its third or fourth week, but I like mine with a week or so of age on it after I get it home. Sometimes I just eat it that night though.

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Kirstin Jackson, as can be easily discerned from the above, harbors a fierce intellect, is a sharp wit, maintains an aware mind, and is a fantastic writer. I look forward to joining our guests in celebrating her achievements, enjoying her company, and luxuriating in the pungent thrill of another memorable wine event at Monte Bello.

~

Please note: We are hosting our annual Assemblage Monte Bello event at our Monte Bello Estate this weekend, and while Saturday is already sold out, there are still a very limited amount of tickets available for Sunday. As the entire estate is allocated to the event, there are no non-event tasting opportunities available, so if you wish to visit, we encourage you to purchase event tickets at your earliest convenience. Once Sunday sells out, no additional visitation will be possible.

Assemblage Monte Bello
Date: 4/28/2013 (Sunday)
11:00am – 5:00pm

Members: complimentary (up to 4 tickets)

Public: $30 per ticket

RSVP by April 25th

Eventbrite - Assemblage Monte Bello - April 27th & 28th, 11am-5pm

~

p.s. The answer to the question posed at the beginning of this post is … yes.

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Posted in Wine Tales, Food & Wine Pairing, Monte Bello, Events & Photographs, RIDGE Questionnaire, Special Offerings, Tasting Events/Opportunities | Leave a Comment »

In Jimsomare Country

March 8, 2013

08zjm1

2008 Ridge Vineyards Jimsomare Zinfandel

One sniff and I know I’m in Jimsomare country; a great and strange place; funkily mystical, mountainously ghosty, soulfully perfect. Jimsomare.

This is rarefied juice; pure Black Mountain, the aroma and flavor of another California; Prospector Zinfandel, Cowboy Zinfandel, Pioneer Zinfandel; this is 5 acres worth of Occurrence Appearing Of Itself, of wine singing We Got More Soul, Dig it …

The nose is rich with saturated blue and black fruit, fragrant tobacco and autumn leaf, and a dense brambliness that brings both berry and branch to the fore; these middle harmonics are undergirded by a firm bassline of pemmican, persimmon, and fig, and topped by a tenor line of loganberry sweetness.

The palate is uniquely supple, with a deft braiding of cool-climate acid and old-vine concentration. Fruit character is almost elusively complex; at once moodily beguiling, laconically demonstrative, and languidly sensual. No one trait dominates, and while the essential core is a dark one, there is a wild mountain liveliness that lends a smoldering intensity to the redder notes of the flavor spectrum.

The finish is perfectly executed — lengthwise and depthwise — and the integrative endeavor has prospered through several years of bottle age, making this a wine that is just now entering its first perfect stage. This is Keith Richards of “Satisfaction” days.

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Posted in Tasting Notes, Varietals & Blends, Zinfandel | Leave a Comment »

The New Dusi Ranch Is Here!!!

January 13, 2013

For 35 years now, the ATP branch of our Wine Club has been busy contributing limited-production rareties to the Ridge Vineyards wine canon; introducing such fabled designations as Old School, Mazzoni, and Jimsomare to the vineyard lexicon, and showcasing comparatively under-the-radar varietals like Carignane to great and palate-opening effect.

One of the longest-running and most storied designations in Ridge’s small-production pantheon is the Dusi Ranch; a designation that, while now comfortably enshrined in the ATP annals, actually predates the club! Founded on vines planted in 1923, and tended since 1944 by Benito Dusi (who was then 11 years old!), this is as unique an old-vine Zinfandel property as California has to offer.

Ridge Vineyards produced its first Dusi Ranch wine in 1967, making this new release, the 2010 Ridge Vineyards Dusi Ranch Zinfandel, the 43rd vintage in a long-line of legendary wines.

Many of you may know this fruit without necessarily realizing it. Members of the Zlist tine of our Wine Club trident, for example, have been consuming its offerings in the guise of our Paso Robles designation for years. Paso is indeed where these vines are located, but the Dusi Ranch label is a comparatively rarefied release. While the Paso Robles zinfandel is a comparatively larger-production release, and accordingly distributed across a sizeable swath of our wholesale landscape, at just over 900 cases, the Dusi Ranch is a dictionary-definition limited-production release.

The question likely brewing in your bean right now is; what drives the selection process as regards whether fruit from the Dusi vineyards goes into the Paso Robles designation, or the Dusi Ranch label? The answer, as with anything Ridge, is  complex, and often even arguably inconsistent, in that, at the end of the day, the only formula is that there is no formula. But if one had to make generalizations, one could probably say that when growing season stars align in such a fashion as to produce certain parcels of a particular and singular intensity and concentration, those blocks will often be parsed out and allocated to the Dusi side; meaning, the Dusi is probably most generally associated with a kind of Paso-That-Goes-To-Eleven style.

For the 2010 selection, as winemaker Eric Baugher notes on the wine’s back label, fruit from only the “most-stressed old vines” was selected for the bottling. In vineyard parlance, for those of you who might not be familiar, vine stress in a state in which a vine is, for lack of a better term, struggling in some fashion. Struggling for water, for nutrients, for survival. 

Vine stress is a subject all its own, to say the least, but in simplest form, productively managed vine stress is a sort of vineyard holy grail; not enough stress induces a sort of viticultural sloth that produces weak, indistinct, personality-less and timid juice. Too much stress will cause a vine to flat-out shut down, and produce, well, nothing. But just the right amount of vine stress can produce juice of great intensity, compression, concentration, and complexity. And it will do so comparatively “naturally.” I put the term in quotes because it’s a hot-button term these days, and I don’t wish to wage in its convoluted waters. But suffice it to say, the point is to tap & manage the “natural”  forces and machinations of the vineyard to produce intensity and complexity without retroactive processing in the winery.

So, in hewing strictly to fruit coming off of “stressed” vines, Ridge is able to produce a wine of a markedly concentrated and intense nature, without relying on additives or overtly manipulative processes to do so. For those of who who prefer your wine details to run deep, here’s the full detail:

Benito Dusi Vineyard grapes, hand harvested.
Destemmed and crushed.
Fermented on the native yeasts, followed by full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria.
Minimum effective sulfur (35ppm at crush, 68 ppm over the course of aging).
Pad filtered at bottling.
In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.

And that’s it! Everything else you taste, is just good ol’ grape juice.

10zdr1

And speaking of taste, I spent some time yesterday with our illustrious Monte Bello Hospitality Team, tasting and talking through this wine, and I’d like to share with you some of their impressions:

2010 Ridge Vineyards Dusi Ranch Zinfandel

Regarding appearance, the wine was highlighted for its “dark rich hue in the glass”; reminiscent to one taster of eggplant, and another dark plum. And all but one singled garnet out as a dominant visual tone.

As to aromatics, impressions were diverse: florality and spice were common notations, with fruit notes running a gamut from Montmorency cherry to currant to apple peel, and spice from baked sage to cocoa.

All tasters noted the vibrancy of the acidity on the mouthfeel, and were clearly pleasantly surprised by the seemingly unanticipated freshness. Responses to the tannin profile were largely united around the summation that tannins were smooth, coated, and integrated.

Summarial analysis was both diverse and unified; united around a general sense of “fruit-forwardness,” but unique as regards specific characteristics. One wrote of the finish as having a “hint of sweetness interestingly off-set by a subtle earthiness”; another described the profile as “juicy”; and still another described the finish as “long” and “velvety smooth.”

If I might offer my own summation, I’d say this wine is particularly notable for its excellent and expert reconciliation of ripe and authentically warm-climate fruit with a strident and bright acidity. I am, in general, not often a purchaser and drinker of zinfandels that run to a riper, warmer, sweeter style, but of this particular wine, I am truly a fan; if one wants a fruit-forward zinfandel that is still controlled, precise, and perfectly balanced; one that reconciles ripeness to acidity, fruit to spice, viscosity to velvet, then one should definitely consider the 2010 Ridge Vineyards Dusi Ranch Zinfandel.

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Thank you to our tasters: Kirsten Anderson, Barry Campbell, Antonio Favela, Kim Korupp, and Peter Yaninek!

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Posted in History, RIDGE Staff, Special Offerings, Tasting Notes, Tasting Rooms, Varietals & Blends, Wine Clubs, Zinfandel | Leave a Comment »

Freshness, Energy, and Balance: In Pursuit of Zinfandel

December 21, 2012

I lived in New York once, and then left, and then moved back and lived there again. That should tell you something about my feelings for New York.

That said, I lived in Northern California once, and then left, and then moved back, and I am now here to stay. That should also tell you something about my feelings for New York.

That said, my missus and I have maintained our subscriptions to The New York Times and The New Yorker.

Meaning, I read Eric Asimov.

Because, as the great and wise Tom Hill says, he has original thoughts. And because, as I say, his heart and his palate are in the right place.

So when Eric wants to talk Zinfandel, I want to listen.

Particularly because Eric doesn’t normally much like Zinfandel.

Fortunately, it turns out he likes ours.

It was an odd quest Mr. Asimov recently set out on; a search for Zinfandels evidencing restraint.

Zinfandels that exhibited freshness, energy, and balance.

Fish in a barrel, or Nessie in the Loch?

They searched, they selected, they tasted. The results?

You could say we were mildly disappointed by our tasting. Certainly, lower alcohol levels by themselves are no guarantee that a wine will be lively and energetic. Yet we hope that more zinfandel producers will embrace the notion that wines can be both agile and intense rather than aiming simply for blockbuster power.

Ok, sounds like it didn’t go very well, right?

Not so!

They did indeed find the wines they were hoping for, just not a great many of them. But the ones they did love, they really loved. And they weren’t even surprised to be loving them. Dig this:

Our No. 1 wine was no surprise. For decades, Ridge has been making great zinfandels from its old-vine vineyards in Sonoma County, and the 2010 from Lytton Springs in Dry Creek Valley was yet another. It was hefty enough at 14.4 percent but beautifully structured, nuanced and refreshing.

I knew I admired Eric for a reason!

In all seriousness, I do indeed admire what he’s done here, because he is raising vital questions relevant not just to the world of wine, but to the world in general. Inadvertently perhaps, but he is  raising them just the same.

What he is really doing, is asking us to face our definition of power.

What is power?

Buson

As a species, we’re pretty feeble in many ways. We cannot fly like birds fly. We cannot “breathe” under water as fish can. Our eyes are weak, and we cannot see in the dark. Our ears are weak, and we cannot hear long distances or wide pitches. We cannot hibernate like bears, nor run as fast as cheetahs. Our skin is fragile; it protects us from neither heat nor sun. We do not live as long as turtles.

What we can do, or should I say, what we do have, is brains. Big brains, with big thoughts in them. And by virtue of our brains, we have achieved a unique sort of power in the world.

But what is important, what is so very important to remember, is the origin of this singular power. It is not a power rooted in physical strength. It is not a power rooted in size, or velocity, or scale. It is not a power of oppression, or violence. It is a power of nuance, and complexity. It is a power of responsivity; compensational in nature, conciliatory in spirit. It is a power of compromise, humility, and respect.

It is a power of observation, a power born from the act of seeing the world, and striving to find a place in it. It is an integrative power.

Misused, it becomes all the things it is, in fact, not. It becomes violent. It becomes oppressive. It becomes ugly. It becomes destructive. Eventually, it ceases even to be power. It becomes merely a weapon.

There is power in a haiku. There is violence in a gun.

Drink freshness, energy, and balance.

Drink haiku.

Before the white chrysanthemum
the scissors hesitate
a moment.

(Yosa Buson, translated by Robert Hass)

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To read Eric’s full article, please click here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/dining/exploring-zinfandels-that-hold-back-on-power.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

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Posted in Lytton Springs, Press Reviews, Tasting Notes, Varietals & Blends, Wine & Literature, Wine & Philosophy, Wine & Poetry, Wine Quotes, Wine Tales, Zinfandel | 4 Comments »

#Harvest2012-Dateline Lytton Springs: The Zin is In!

October 4, 2012

Zin.

Bin.

Zin in Bin.

Zin is in the Bin.

Zin is In!

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The 2nd of October was a momentous day in the history of #Harvest2012. On this day, the first Zinfandel came in from the Lytton Springs vineyards!

The verdict?

Lytton Springs Winemaker John Olney is a straight-talkin’ fella; he doesn’t always say much, but what he says always comes right from the hip. When I asked him about the quality/character of the fruit …

“So far the fruit looks and tastes great … Sugar levels are manageable, color abundant, fermentations a bit timid but steady. Overall thumbs up.”

For John, that qualifies as prose most purple.

Be excited. Be very excited.

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John said one additional thing that merits special attention. After noting that the fruit looks and tastes great, John said:

“All the credit for that goes to the vineyard team.”

I wish to join John in acknowledging the extraordinary contributions these amazing individuals so consistently make.

No one works harder …

and no one enacts in more tangible fashion the singularly symbiotic relationship that exists between people and the land …

Blistering heat. Backbreaking work. Impossible timelines, impossible pressure. Yet still, a smile. A big, huge, this-is-the-real-magic smile.

Will Thomas, Lytton Springs Viticulturist

Three cheers for you Will Thomas, and three cheers for the whole vineyard team. What tremendous work you’re doing!

–

#Harvest2012.

Feel it.

–

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Posted in Events & Photographs, Lytton Springs, RIDGE Staff, Varietals & Blends, Vineyards and Oenology, Wine Tales, Winemaking, Zinfandel | Leave a Comment »

#Harvest2012: First Fruit at Lytton Springs!

September 15, 2012

Ah, they’re drinkin’ champys in Healdsburg, #Harvest2012 has begun at Lytton Springs!

Early this morning, before the morning fog had even broken …

the team was out and in the vines. The Buchignani Ranch. Carignane and Zinfandel.

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And then, before the fog had barely even burned off …

… the vines were already picked clean.

From there, it was just a wee jaunt to the winery, where the grapes were introduced to their destiny …

Ever vigilant, the winemaking team took it all in, berry by precious berry …

Flashbulbs were poppin’, shutters were clackin’; memories made, memories stored …

To use the parlance of the day, it was a good pick.

–

Here is our VP of Vineyards Operations David Gates, on the character and quality of the fruit:

The Buchignani fruit looks great, good flavors, great acidity, and plenty of it. We picked all but a few tons of zinfandel (which will be harvested next week) and the carignane from the Top and Back blocks. The zin is as sweet as candy and the carignane tastes like a cherry apple, if there was such a fruit.

Ah, the perfect wisdom of David Gates! As pure an exhortation to plan your multi-case purchases of 2012 Buchignani Carignane & Zinfandel well ahead of time as ever was exhorted …

Here’s bit of the live action for you …

Please join me in raising a big toast to David Gates (VP of Vineyard Operations) and Will Thomas (Viticulturist, Lytton Springs) on the vineyard side, to John Olney & Muiris Griffin (Lytton Springs Winemaker & Assistant Winemaker respectively) on the winery side, and to all members of the vineyard and production team for a great #Harvest2012 debut!

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Posted in Carignane, Lytton Springs, RIDGE Staff, Varietals & Blends, Video, Vineyards and Oenology, Winemaking, Zinfandel | Leave a Comment »

Zap! You Love Zinfandel! – Kablam! You Love ZAP!

August 2, 2012

Pow! There’s big news in ZAPland!

Ask yourself, what do Ridge Vineyards, Biale Vineyards, Terra D’Oro Winery, and Starry Night Winery have in common?

Answer? We’re all board members of ZAP!

And YOU may remember ZAP from such events as the  Annual Zinfandel Festival in San Francisco!

And by the way, t’ain’t too late to save the date! The 2013 edition of the annual ZAP festival is now on the books, dig this:

http://www.zinfandel.org/default.asp?n1=26&n2=920&member=

–

But back to the point:

POW! There’s big news in ZAPland!

The current and continuing board members of ZAP — those legendary Troubadours of Terroir; those Vivacious Varietal Vaqueros; those Zany, Zoned-in, Zestful Zealouts of Zinfandel, are today happily celebrating the announcement of New Board Members!

Here is the “proper” PR-speakese edition of the news:

Zinfandel Advocates & Producers has announced its new Board of Directors for 2012-2013. Continuing as President is Robert Biale of Robert Biale Vineyards (Napa); the Vice President is Mark Vernon of Ridge Vineyards (Bay Area); Secretary is Chris Leamy of Terra d’Oro Winery (Sierra Foothills) and Treasurer is Bruce Walker of Starry Night Winery (At Large).

The Board of Directors consists of ZAP members who represent the diverse Zinfandel growing regions: from July 2012 through June 2013, new members on the Board are Kevin Riley (Proulx Wines, Central Coast), Randle Johnson (Artezin Wines, At Large), Robert Biale (Robert Biale Vineyards, Napa), Jonathan Lachs (Cedarville, Sierra Foothills), Kent Knight (At Large), Joel Peterson (Ravenswood, S. Sonoma), Kent Rosenblum (Rock Wall Wine Company, Greater Bay Area), Bernie Scarinzi (At Large) and Miro Tcholakov (Trentadue, N. Sonoma).

The nine continuing Board members are Erin Cline (Three Wine Company, At Large), Duane Dappen (D-Cubed Cellars, Napa), Tim Holdener (Macchia, Lodi/Central Valley), Chris Leamy (Terra d’Oro, At Large), Rich Parducci, (McNab Ridge, Mendocino & Lake), Pete Seghesio (Seghesio, N. Sonoma), Mark Vernon (Ridge Vineyards, N. Sonoma) and Bruce Walker (Starry Night Winery, At Large).

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Mark Vernon, President of Ridge Vineyards (and Vice-President of Zinfandel Advocates & Producers!), is the living embodiment of our great affection for, and belief in, this fantastic grape; the in-action enactment of our committment to the ever-increasing reputation of, and ever-burgeoning love for, these fantastic wines. That’s why he’s on the board.

Why? Because we love Zinfandel!

But wait!

Is this love controversial?

It can be. Lord knows we’ve waded into the “is it serious or not” waters many times before.

I myself took on the question recently (in rather upright and straightforward form, I might add!), in a post entitled “The Seriousness of Zinfandel,” which can be found by clicking here.

I also took on the question in perhaps more idiosyncratically archetypical fashion in another post entitled “Zin Monk,” which can be found by clicking here. It was in this post that I attempted to lay out, to the best of my ability, and in the way I best saw fit, just exactly what the questions are that drive the so-conceived IDENTITY CRISIS of Zinfandel.

Regarding Zinfandel; the question:

Is it — as the low-brow funky, populist sweaty, good-timin’ egalitarian, country mouse side would have it — the people’s grape? Approachable, affable, not puttin’ on airs? Good for a laugh, great to have at a party, a friend to everyone?

Or is it — as the high-brow uptown, austere elitist , uptight classist, city mouse side would have it — a noble grape? Serious, important, elusive, complex? Not for everyone?

The answer, if you read the post, is Thelonious Monk.

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For another take on the IDENTITY CRISIS, I recently sat down with David Amadia, our Vice President of Sales & Marketing. He had recently written an essay on the seriousness of Zinfandel, and between his preparatory essay-research on the subject, and the fascinatingly diverse multi-demographic exposures his job affords him (this is a man who travels all over the world, tasting wines in every conceivable environment: from private dining rooms in Hong Kong and multi-thousand-capacity halls in Dusseldorf, to the back room of a wine bar in Reno and a speakeasy in Texas), I figured no one in the world was better-positioned to speak to the IDENTITY CRISIS. So, when asked to address the matter of whether Zinfandel should be considered a “serious” wine or not, he had this to say:

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Should you be so inclined, I heartily recommend that you read David’s full essay, entitled “Zinfandel: A Great Wine.” You can find it by clicking the link below:

spring2012

***Attention! Penultimate essay quote:

The percentage of zinfandel that falls into the great category has been growing steadily over the past fifty years, and now compares favorably with percentages of great cabernet and pinot noir produced in California. The time has come for those quaffers of cabernet and pinot to pour themselves a glass of Lytton Springs or Geyserville, and say “That’s great wine!”

–

All of which is just to say … all of which is just to say … all of which is just to say that, in just writing “All of which is just to say,” I’ve just been reminded of the great William Carlos William poem, “This Is Just To Say!” Which goes like this:

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

-

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

-

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

–

which might be paraphrased to serve our purposes here, as follows:

I have tasted

the zinfandels

that were in

the cellar

-

and which

you were probably

saving

for dinner

-

Forgive me

they were delicious

so serious

and so fun

–

All of which is just to say, Congratulations to the New Board Members of ZAP!

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Posted in History, Varietals & Blends, Video, Vineyards and Oenology, Wine & Poetry, Wine Quotes, Wine Tales, Winemaking, Zinfandel | Leave a Comment »

Zinfandel, BBQ, & You …

April 20, 2012

Can’t let you know -just yet- the where, why, what, when, how of why we were tasting iterations of BBQ today -with companionated iterations of Zinfandel- but if you can just get yer 2-flap Sherlock lid on, you might just grok the rock.

In the meantime, let the pictures speak their thousand words …

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Posted in Food & Wine Pairing, Wine & Food Pairing, Zinfandel | Leave a Comment »

From Grape to Glass: The Journey

February 23, 2012

That a grape undergoes a transformative journey en route to its incarnation as a bottle of wine is reasonably self-evident; wine could of course not be possible without said journey taking place.

But in fact, there is more than meets the eye afoot, and more than one journey underway.

The original magic of the vine-to-wine transubstantiation resides in the overlapping concentrics of history. A vineyard is a journey unto itself; soil to seed, plant to fruit; year in and year out, the ever-deepening Samsaric encirculation of life, the poetry of the perennial:

The vineyards crews
don’t dare mention drought.
The rain is going to come this weekend.

Already I have seen
three snowflakes prancing lightly
like young reindeer in the air.

Back from holidays, they start in
on the pruning of the slopes, repeating
mantras to their dogs, laughing in Spanish.

From the gun club by the quarry
comes the shots
that we all hear on a delay.

We amaze ourselves, reminded
that the stars we beg to weep
have died already.

There is nowhere
for the last year to go,
but to the ground.

Already
every day
is growing larger.

Spindling out from this ever-in-rotation  inner agrarian hub, like spokes of some great metaphysical wheel, are the revelations of vintage; each season a season of imagination, impossibility, and faith.; new journeys all; from the grape, to the glass.

This is what we taste when we taste honest and authentic wine; the history of the vineyard, the history of the harvest, the histories of the living and the dead, the biology of sweet human endeavor, in forever soulful congress with the earth, with the sky, with the gods.

The  Old World. The New World.

The Journey.

(The following film short is a pictorial chronicle of a grape’s journey from vineyard to bottle, featuring Ridge Vineyards Geyserville, set to the music of Antonín Dvořák’s ”From The New World” symphony; a work composed back in the era when Geyserville’s “Old Patch” was just being planted.)

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Posted in Varietals & Blends, Wine Tales, Zinfandel, History, Wine & Poetry, Vineyards and Oenology, Winemaking, Geyserville, Video | Leave a Comment »

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