Zinfandel

I tend to taste and drink a lot of wine over the course of a year. I am in a few tasting groups, sometimes the wines are consumed at various local wine store tastings and a number drunk with friends and family.

Napa Valley Zinfandels are celebrated for their easy drinking allure and bold juicy flavors making this varietal a total crowd pleaser. Zinfandels made in the Napa Valley are iconic, although some may say a little forgotten, however, it’s a flavor profile known for intense black fruits and spice which render Napa Valley Zinfandels as the most epically jammy varietal produced. The Napa Valley’s warm California climate is fundamental to winemaking and Napa Valley Zinfandels are a great example of how winemakers utilize that heat, skillfully harnessing the temperatures to produce some of the most intense wine the Napa Valley has to offer. Zinfandels crafted in the Napa Valley region, especially old vine Zinfandels, have exploding flavors that ripen outrageously giving life to wines that create an exceptional food and wine experience. When you find a way to always have excellent Napa Valley Zinfandel around it’s sure to illuminate any meal because Napa Valley Zinfandel is, more than anything else, a food pairing wine. These Napa Valley wineries with the best Zinfandel are recommendations specifically known for their outstanding, award-winning Zinfandel.

For the 2015 Best of Sonoma Lists we surveyed hundreds of local vintners asking for their inside perspective of the best wines, tasting rooms, and restaurants in Sonoma. To help find the top Zinfandels that no wine aficionado should leave Sonoma without tasting, we asked over a hundred Sonoma vintners for their top picks (under $100).

Zinfandel—the grape Americans call their own. The story of Zinfandel mirrors the multicultural heritage of our country and the struggle of immigrants to make it in a new land. From white to red and sweet to dry, this is a grape that has been reinvented to suit the changing tastes of wine consumers across the country. Originally from Croatia, the grape showed up in the US with Italian immigrants in the 1800s (who called it, as it is still known today in Italy, Primitivo). More than a century later it was nearly extinct with vines ripped up in favor of international varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. But the huge popularity of white Zin in the 1980s and 1990s saved the grape from obscurity and nowadays the finest expression of Zinfandel comes not from Croatia or Italy but from California where it is produced as a dry red wine that can be light bodied and chockfull of ripe fruit or rich and inky with high alcohol and port-like characteristics.

I live in San Francisco and January weather here means 50 degrees and rain. Constant bone-chilling rain, or so it seems. And before the rest of America emails to remind me how good I have it and how freaking cold it is in New York or Ohio or whatever other frozen tundra they call home, I'm just gonna say that when you are cold, you are cold, and comfort food -and comfort wine- goes a long way towards warming your heart when Old Man Winter starts to have his way with you. So with this in mind, I bring you two comfort wines you should go buy this week. Glenn Hawk Zinfandel - I typically don't gravitate to Zinfandel. I associate Zins with "cocktail wines", that is, wines that are delicious for a few sips of a single glass but can be a bit too fruity and overwhelming for those of us who tend towards enjoying multiple glasses. So I don't recommend many Zinfandels simply because I don't drink many of them. Every once in a while I stumble back down the Zinfandel path and am reminded of how good the varietal can be. I recently tried the 2009 Glenn Hawk Zinfandel from Livermore Valley (just south of Napa in the shadow of Mt. Diablo).

IntoWine.com asked our wine experts to recommend the best value Zinfandel. Here are there top picks for a good bottle of Zinfandel at an affordable price point: In January I attended the ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates and Producers) festival at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Hundreds of producers poured...

California Zinfandel 2010 88 D/H 2009 89 D/H 2008 92 D/H 2007 92 D 2006 89 D 2005 90 D 2004 87 D 2003 90 D 2002 88 D 2001 92 D 2000 88 D 1999 88 D 1998 86 D 1997 92 D 1996 90 D 1995 89 D 1994 91 D 1993 90 D 1992 92 D 1991 90 D 1990 87 D Vintage Charts should be used for a generalized guide in lieu...