WINO 101

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to the Carpe Vinum Friday Flights announcement! This week we’re visiting with our old friend Crljenak Kastelanski which, by the more common name is Zinfandel! The longer and more unpronouncable name is how scientists refer to the grape after identifying it as the one that has its origins on the Dalmation Coast of Croatia. Knowing that, doesn’t Crljenak Kastelanski sound like an old friend? It’s your old Croatian friend that’s coming to dinner! To be consumed! Okay. .that doesn’t sound like a nice thing to do to a friend at all, but this friend wouldn’t have it any other way. Zinfandel is the big, strong, fruity and spicy red wine that helped put California on the map.

If any of you respond to that statement with “Oh! They make it in RED too?”, I might chuckle a bit, uncomfortably, but still put all pretentiousness aside. The pink stuff known as “White Zinfandel” is often the first stuff we are exposed to, so we naturally think of that as the original. I think we’ve all been at that point once in our lives. We’ve all, at some time or another, been victims to the giant wineries with their giant advertising campaigns and their giant jugs of pink wines of which we were forced to drink too much of while visiting a college girlfriend at her grandmother’s place in a trailer park in Northern Idaho only to become quite ill later in the evening. We’ve all been there, right? Right? Anyone? Hm. . .

Today, however, I’m here to set the record straight. Zinfandel is red. White Zinfandel is not white, and is not necessarily always Zinfandel either. It’s perfectly okay to like the “White Zinfandel,” but I will still try to talk you out of it. The rest of you, though, already know the Zin, and most of you love it like I do. That’s why I do these Zin tastings so often. It’s a wine for the people. It’s easy to love, good with just about any meal (depending on what’s for breakfast) and it has a cult following with its own society. (ZAP! Zinfandel Advocates and Producers).

So here’s a wonderful selection of Zins! And a few of them have extra-noteworthy points. The Ehlers Estate Zinfandel was previously only available through the tasting room at the winery in California. Now it’s only available there and in Oregon. The Wineglass Cellars Zinfandel is fruit grown in California, but the wine was made in Washington. That kinda makes it a Northwest Zin, doesn’t it? Also of note is the Norman Vineyards Zinfandel. It’s called “The Monster”!

Let me say that again. “The Monster!” Grrr. . .sounds cool, doesn’t it?

So Friday, September 30th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Crljenak Kastelanski!
Castle Rock 2004 Zinfandel, Sonoma
Mount Aukum 2003 Zinfandel, El Dorado
Norman Vineyards 2003 “The Monster” Zinfandel, Paso Robles
Wineglass Cellars “Batch 1″ Zinfandel, Lodi
Opolo Vineyards 2004 Zinfandel, Lake County

A.K.A. Zinfandel!!
Ehlers Estate 2002 Zinfandel, Napa Valley
Limerick Lane 2002 Collins Vineyard Zinfandel, Russian River

Next Friday tasting is Wines of South America!

M