WINO 101

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to another Carpe Vinum Newsletter and Tasting Alert Alert! This week we’re wrapping up the month of March with your favorite and mine, the ultra-powerful Zinfandel! Time slips by us quickly, and I hadn’t realized that the last Zin tasting we had was back in September! Can you believe it? So I thought the time was ripe. The wines are ripe. The fruit was ripe before being made into the wine that is now ripe. And so on.. here we go!

So. . .Zinfandel. If ever there was a wine for the wine geek like me, the Zinfandel is it! For any newcomers to the class, I’ll review what we’ve learned so far. Zinfandel is a grape that originated on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia, where it is known as Crljenak Kastelanski. From its home in Croatia, it made its way to the New World. (Not on its own, mind you. I’m sure it was carried by a ship with people on it. . .and more specifically, by the people on the ship. I mean, sure, it might be possible for a grapevine to be accidentally washed out to sea only to drift across the water to the shores of a new land and to plant itself on the beach and propagate its existence on the land of its new home. I’ll wager it’s probably the boat thing, though.)

There is some speculation about how Zinfandel made its way to the United States from Croatia. (By which route, I mean. We’ve already figured it’s probably the boat.) Once people realized that Zinfandel was actually the same grape as the Italian Primitivo, the question arose about the fact that Zinfandel was planted in the United States earlier than the oldest plantings in Italy, so it obviously didn’t come from Italy. The most supported theory is the vine clippings were taken from Croatia to the Vienna Palace gardens, and they made their way to both destinations from there.

So do they grow Zinfandel in Vienna? No one but the Viennese knows. But I would assume it’s probably too cold there. Zin is a warm-climate grape, and nowhere does it perform like in California. The places where Zinfandel is planted are growing (In numbers, that is. Number of places where it is growing. Well. . .and the grapevines themselves are growing, of course.) and we can now find Zinfandel in Oregon, Washington, Italy and Australia. Someday I’d like to see if there could be a Croatian bottling of pure Crljenak Kastelanski, although it’s apparently almost extinct there, and there isn’t enough growing for such a project. Ah, but a wine geek can dream, hey?

Oh, and as a point of interest, I just found in a book that Zinfandel has also gone by the names “Zagarese” and “Zingarello”, although no one ever calls it that, as far as I can tell. Nobody calls it Crljenak Kastelanski either, but mostly because you could sprain your tongue trying to pronounce it.

So Friday, March 31st, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Crljenak Kastelanski!!
Shooting Star 2003 Zinfandel, Lake County, California
Artezin 2004 Zinfandel, Mendocino, Sonoma, and Amador Counties, California
Kangarilla Road 2003 Zinfandel, Langhorne Creek, Australia
Marietta 2003 Zinfandel, Alexander and Dry Creek Valleys, California
Green & Red 2004 Zinfandel, Chiles Canyon, Napa Valley, California

Zin!! Zin!! Zin!!
Dashe 2003 Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley, California
Seghesio 2003 Old Vine Zinfandel, Sonoma County, California

A stellar deal at $10 for the First 5, $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!

Next Friday tasting Argentina!

M