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 The 2006 ZAP Festival
January 25 - 28, San Francisco
More than 8,000 Zinfandel lovers. Two-hundred-seventy-two wineries pouring two wines (or more) each. More than 1,500 pounds of international cheeses and 8,600 baguettes. Those are the raw numbers of the 15th anniversary Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP) tasting held January 28th at Fort Mason in San Francisco. The tasting is the final event of a four-day annual celebration of what is considered to be "America's wine:" big, bold, delicious Zinfandel.
Despite what may seem like crushing numbers, this is one of the best organized events you will ever attend. Despite being surrounded by thousands of people, you don't feel crushed by a crowd. And it's a unique opportunity to taste an overwhelming number of exceptional wines -- many you may not get to experience outside of their tasting rooms.
This year our focus (and with 272 wineries, you need focus) was to sample wines from smaller wineries. What follows are some of the highlights from our afternoon of tasting. There was not one bad wine in the dozens we tasted, but these stood out a little more than the others.
Montevina is one of our favorites wineries. They produce consistently great wines at a great price. The Zinfandel Port ($18 on their Web site) is delicious. Rich, smooth and luscious. They also have a new wine called Wild Thing, a blend of Zinfandel, Syrah, and Barbera. Great stuff.
They make great wine and they love dogs. What's not to like? “Portrait of a Mutt” Zinfandel is rich, fruit forward and yummy.
Rancho Arroyo is a small winery from the Central Coast region of California producing some beautiful Zins. One they were pouring was a wine they had donated to the ZAP auction made in conjunction with Saucelito Canyon (see below). It was phenomenal. Rich, good flavors, earth.
In a show filled with exceptional wines, it's almost ridiculous to declare one as best in show. So let's just say of the dozens of wines we tasted, this is the one that stood above the rest. The Saucelito Canyon 2004 Dos Ranchos is phenomenal. It will be released in the next few weeks on a very limited basis. The other Zins they were pouring were excellent too, but Dos Ranchos was a real stand out.
Mendocino Wineries
There were several wineries form Mendocino this year. Our favorite was Barra of Mendocino -- this was their first year there. The wine was good, but it was the Barras themselves. Charlie Barra has been farming grapes in Mendocino for 50 years and is a lovely person to talk with.
Let's start with the wine -- which was excellent (read our review from October). Certainly in our top five for the show. They are also very good marketers. They gave away black Gnarly Head caps, which you saw everywhere at Fort Mason.
The Other Guys were pouring PlungerHead Dry Creek Valley Zin, which was very nice. The interesting part was the closure: they're using Zorks. A Zork is a "revolutionary wine closure that seals like a screw cap and pops like a cork." They are produced by an Australian company and are being used on a limited number of wines, including some from Don Sebastiani & Sons.
And finally, from our very unscientific sample of the show, our best value: Clay Station 2004 Old Vine Lodi. $12.99 retail price. Rich, fruity, delicious. Clay Station is part of the Delicato Family Vineyards (which also owns Gnarly Head) and they are rolling out broader distribution for Clay Station -- so hopefully you'll find it on your shelves soon.
The difficult part about reviewing a ZAP tasting is all the exceptional wineries we can't write about -- there are just too many. Our advice: try it yourself next year (January 27, 2007). For more information, visit www.zinfandel.org.
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