ZAP, Zin, Zoom!

The Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP) Zinfandel Festival kicked off today in San Francisco. Dedicated to all things Zin, the festival is in its 20th year of bringing a wider audience - and respectability - to a once-maligned and unknown California grape.

Zins tend to be robust reds bursting with spice and fruit with a long, soft finish. I recently had the Oak Ridge Ancient Vines Zinfandel that displayed all of the above characteristics and then some. Made from 50 - 100 year old vines, the Oak Ridge is a concentrated, elegant wine with soft tannins and hints of leather and cinnamon under big fruit flavors. I haven't had a zin in some time and the Oak Ridge reminded me of what a great zin can taste like. And since Zinfandel is not as well-known as, say Cabernet Sauvignion or Merlot, you can find some great values. The Oak Ridge will set you back only $12.99.

Both the Oak Ridge and the fact that ZAP is underway got me thinking about another grape that is struggling for acceptance, respectability and a wider-audience: The Norton. Like Zinfandel, the Norton is an American original. It was introduced in the mid-nineteenth century, and has recently been rediscovered and has a growing and loyal following. Like most things with a growing and loyal following, people who have discovered Nortons can't believe how few people know about the grape and the wine made from it.

Also like Zinfandel, the Norton grape makes big, robust wines. Mellow, oaky and dry with liquorice and blackberry flavors and a deep, violet color. Norton wine lovers should look to Zinfandel for inspiration for how to grow a wider following for their preferred wine. And some are. Leading the way is Chrysalis Vineyards. Chrysalis currently has four Nortons on offer and is the host of the annual Norton Wine and Bluegrass Festival.

Another similarity between Zinfandel and Norton is that both grow well in a very limited area. Zinfandel doesn't grow exceptionally well outside of California (unless you count its twin, the Primitivo grape in Italy) and Norton has really only thrived in Missouri and Virginia.

Both varietals are native American Grapes that produce deep, hearty wines. And both grapes are very particular in where they grow well. Zinfandel serves as a great example of where Norton can be as a varietal provided people continue to try and enjoy the wine.

Pizza WIne

Not every wine needs to be described in terms of bouquets, aromas, flavor profiles and complexity. Sometimes a wine should just taste like wine, and a decent bottle should cost about as much as a decent six pack. These are the everyday wines - wines you can serve with pizza. Or mac and cheese and hot dogs. Or other quick, everyday meals. Without breaking the bank or pretending that you are going on a flavor safari just because you are drinking wine.

For these occasions, there is nothing wrong with picking up a bottle at the grocery store, cracking it open and enjoying it for what it is: an inexpensive beverage that goes with whatever it is you are eating. For example, the Ravenswood 2007 Napa Valley Zinfandel went very, very well with the pizza we had for dinner. It is a wine that accompanied what it was supposed to, and at $12.99 was a good value, too. Zins tend to pair well with pizza, and the Ravenswood, because it is inexpensive and readily available, is a good "go to" wine for such a meal. There are plenty of others that work just as well.

As for Virginia wines, perhaps a good benchmark of the industry's maturity will be that it is able to produce both elegant, well-made high-end wines and wines that can be opened and served on any given night with any given quick meal without being seen as a novelty. It is certainly possible to make that transition quickly. Just ask any winemaker in Australia, Chile or South Africa.

Check Out the Washington Wine Academy!

For anyone not familiar with the Washington Wine Academy, I would highly encourage you to check them out. Celebrating 10 years in business this year, WWA offers a host of different wine tasting and education events around the region. Since Washington, DC is among the largest wine markets in the country, WWA provides an invaluable service to a thirsty region.

I first learned about WWA through one of the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse’s Wine Nights some years back where WWA had a wine tasting set up and the Drafthouse had discounts on glasses, carafes, bottles and flagons of wine…Maybe not flagons, but there were certainly some good wine deals. WWA also sponsors wine tours, and has a prensence at many different food and wine events around the area.

I didn’t think much else about WWA until Caitlin recently got us tickets to one of their hour-long wine education courses. The class provided a great overview of enjoying wine for people of all levels - from novices to those who scrutinize the finest of wine lists to regional wine bloggers. There was enough information for everyone to make the course worthwhile and informative, while also making wine much more approachable. The instructor, Tom Finigan of Washburn Wine, did a great job of explaining the characteristics of wine, dispelled some of the common myths and misconceptions about wine, and most importantly, walked us through what to look for during a wine tasting.

The tasting included a Virginia wine: Barboursville Vineyards Octagon IX Edition 2006. The 2006 Octagon is a velvety red wine that has hints of blackberries, currants and oakiness on the nose. Based on the smell alone, it would be easy to think that Barboursville’s Octagon is simply trying to be a Virginia zinfandel, yet when you taste it, and sense the dryness and high tannins with a spicy, thick, fruity finish, then you know that it is not a zin knockoff at all but something else all its own. If you want to splurge on a Virginia red, you could do worse than this one at $40 a bottle.

Now that DC is in the full throes of summer’s heat and humidity, it is a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with the Washington Wine Academy. It is nearby, well-run and air-conditioned. They do a lot throughout the region and certainly are worth the support of the community.

Thanksgiving in The Finger Lakes

First and foremost, an apology for not having posted recently. The good news is I have collected many anecdotes from Virginia wineries regarding how they celebrated Virginia Wine Month and am compiling those stories and will write a much-belated summary of how wineries fared during October soon.

Second, I have read, and will write a post reviewing The Wine Trials in the near future as well. It is a fascinating book with some very good suggestions for some stellar wines for under $15. Pick up a copy, or wait for the Beltway Bacchus Book Review that will be coming soon...

Finally, with Thanksgiving having just passed, and most of us now in serious leftover mode, I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday and were able to pair their traditional Thanksgiving meal with good wine. We spent the holiday with Caitlin’s family in the Finger Lakes. There was lots of family, more food, and plenty of wine that Caitlin picked up after perusing the list of recommended wines from the Wine Trials.

The standout wine, in my opinion, was Gnarly Head’s Old Vine Zin 2007. The 2007 zin is medium-bodied with a spiciness that worked well to accentuate the tastes of the traditional Thanksgiving foods. I especially enjoyed this wine with the mashed sweet potatoes, where the wine’s kick was nicely balanced by the sweetness and butteriness of the dish, and with the stuffing and gravy - because who doesn’t like stuffing and gravy?

Although zinfandel is not necessarily the first varietal people think of when they think of wines for Thanksgiving - I would wager that most people assume that the white meat of the turkey would good well with a white wine - introducing reds that are a bit bolder make for an even more interesting meal. The zinfandel certainly worked well, if not better, then the Mirassou Pinot Noir that was also served and is another of the recommendations from the Wine Trials. I found that the silkiness and fruitiness of the Mirassou did not go as well with the heavy food, though it is still a fine-drinking red in its own right.

Our Anniversary with Water and Wine

Caitlin and I celebrated our two-year anniversary over the weekend. To mark the occasion, I made us a reservation at the Tides Inn in Irvington, VA. It is a kitchen sink luxury resort in the best possible way.

Aside from well-appointed rooms, all of which have views of the Chesapeake Bay, there is a golf course, spa, marina, water sports, pools and two restaurants that have a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence wine list with 340 selections. It should be noted that The Tides is pet friendly, so Kopek got to get away for the weekend with us.

Of the Tides two main restaurants, the Chesapeake Club is the more informal and the East Room is the more formal of the two. For dinner, we selected a Rosenblum Cellars Vintner's Cuvée XXXI Zinfandel. Zinfandels traditionally are considered good wines to pair with BBQ, pizza and pasta dishes, and are not known to go well with seafood, though it did go fairly well with the crab cakes that I ordered. It was not an overly-powerful zinfandel, which I was nervous may have been the case. Instead, it was more medium-bodied that balanced fruit and berry flavors with the characteristic spice of a zinfandel well.

While the weekend was very relaxing and romantic – the perfect way to spend an anniversary, a couple of nit-picky details deserve some attention. First, we were on the Chesapeake, which is where the world’s best crabs come from. True, Deadliest Catch makes Alaskan crab fishing sexier, but blue crabs taste better. I hate when places try to gussy up their crab cakes too much by adding filler peppers, or anything much other than crabmeat. The crab cakes at dinner had peppers in them, which gets points deducted in my book. That said, the crab cake we ordered from room service earlier in the day was pretty much all lump crabmeat and was delicious.

Since the Tides has an award-winning wine list, I was confident that whatever we ordered would be good, and what we ordered would be labeled properly. The zinfandel that we ordered was listed as a Sonoma appellation, but the bottle labeled it as a California wine. I know that it is a small detail, but for a distinguished wine list, I would have expected a bit more truth in advertising. In any event, neither the peppers in the crab cake or ordering a Sonoma wine that was actually a California took away from the overall enjoyment of the weekend.

If Caitlin and I make it back to the Tides, we will make sure that we arrive after the room is ready so we can drop off Kopek right away and explore the grounds on our own. Ideally with a glass of wine in hand.