Chilly Wine Friday

There is a big wine deal coming up next week called ZAP down at the Union Station.

ZAP is a pretty cool group of people who basically love Zinfandel. No, Tony, not the pink stuff. Red Zinfandel.

Red Zinfandel is cool stuff because it is uniquely American and as such it is really a lot like us. It is in your face, big, bold, a little spicy and many of them are high octane.

You should check it out if you love to swirl and sniff with the best of KC's cork dorks. It really marks the beginning of the Spring season of many, many local wine events. It is March 3rd.

I'm attending and I'll give you a full blown review of many Zins next week I'm guessing.....

But for this week I thought I'd prime the pump with a Zintastic review of a great Zinfandel I had this week.

My wine of the week was the 2006 Amapola Creek Sonoma Monte Rosso Zinfandel. Wow. What a freakish wine. I've had several Monte Rosso Vineyard wines. It is a sought after high elevation vineyard in the Mayacamas and the vines are very, very old....like over a 100 years. Several wineries buy fruit from it. These guys made only 361 cases.

It tasted of wild berries and cloves and bing cherries and the normal vanilla from the oak. The spice was black pepper. It was a little more racy than I expected. It had some nice blueberry and along with that raciness would make me think cool climate or maybe a cooler than normal vintage in general. Now that I think about it I don't remember other Monte Rosso wines tasting "huge" and jammy. They seem to have an elegance and a restrained nature to them. Maybe that is the vineyard talking. Anyway, it doesn't have to big and high alcohol to be fantastic zin. This is a great wine.

One quick note on my philosophy of Red Zinfandel. I like them relatively young meaning release to 6 years-ish. I don't think they age particularly great. The fruit goes away quickly and what is left in my opinion is prunish. So, the good news is there is no need to age too long. Just enjoy. Also, there are many very nice examples for a reasonable price. You can get some very nice Zinfandel for around $20.

This bottle was $45 which I would consider pretty upscale for Zinfandel but in this case worth it.

Have a great weekend and enjoy.

Vaya Con Dios.