Zinfandels to drink with whatever meat you grill

red in honor of the red, white and blue.

Sure, zinfandel can be a big bruiser of a wine, and maybe you don’t automatically think of that kind of wine when it comes to warm-weather drinking, but hey — you do it for America, am I right? The grape variety we call zinfandel was not born here, but through the generations, it has become as American as jelly doughnuts (aka Berliners) and hot dogs (aka frankfurters). I wouldn’t drink zinfandel with either of those fully assimilated foods, but I would drink it with hamburgers (and any Hamburgers who happen to be in town) or just about any meat from the grill, braised meats, roasted duck, pizza or meaty pasta dishes.

I would also drink it with great attention to pacing, as many zinfandels can approach or even exceed 15 percent alcohol. This is a potent red wine, dry and usually full of ripe fruit and spicy black pepper. Notes of plum can be joined by blackberry, cherry, raspberry, anise, raisins, clove and chocolate, plus a whiff of toast, smoke or vanilla from oak aging. Medium- to full-bodied, zinfandel is not a wimpy wine in any way.

Believed to have originated in Croatia, where it is known as both crljenak kastelanski and tribidrag, zinfandel came to the United States in the 19th century and is now one of California’s most widely planted red grape varieties.

Another one from Dry Creek Valley. This incredibly silky wine had jammy fruit, including blackberry and plum, plus floral notes, spice, cocoa powder, black pepper and 15.1 percent alcohol.

This Lodi wine was bursting with incense, raspberry, smoke, herbs, baking spices, jammy dark berries, anise and black pepper. Its many layers led to an evolving and satisfyingly slow-developing finish.

From Napa Valley, this wine was floral with black fruit, black licorice, herbs and a lighter body. Made of 79 percent zinfandel, it was easy to drink — almost refreshing — and clocks in at a reasonable-for-zinfandel 13.6 percent alcohol.

Brimming with blackberry, plum and smoke, plus spice, black pepper and chocolate on the finish, this Napa Valley wine comes from the winery that won the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 with its chardonnay.

From a legendary zinfandel producer in Dry Creek Valley, this zinfandel-dominant blend was full of dark fruit, herbs, smoke and a bright streak of acidity, plus spice and zesty black pepper on its long finish.

This Napa Valley offering gave up strawberry, blueberry, black cherry, vanilla and cedar. Its zingy acidity and grippy tannins make it a great wine for just about anything hot off the grill.

Dark fruits, raspberry, black olive and fig combined with eucalyptus, a whiff of sassafras and black pepper in this beauty. Complex and continually developing, this silky wine hails from Shenandoah Valley.