California: best Zinfandel

Jeff Cox

It’s a variety synonymous with Californian wine, but for years it was overlooked in favour of fashionable Bordeaux styles. Now, thanks to some of the state’s best winemakers, it’s the star of field blends and single-varietal bottlings alike. Jeff Cox shares his top producer picks

Anyone who likes ‘the blood and sun of California’, as a European friend characterised his first taste of Zinfandel, should give recognition to the early Italian pioneers who settled the coasts of central and northern California.

The regions looked like northern Italy. They had Italy’s Mediterranean climate. And those Italian farmers brought with them more than 2,000 years of grape-growing and winemaking experience. They didn’t have degrees in viticulture or oenology. They farmed by the seat of their pants. But they were savvy as hell.

The pioneers are long gone, though you can still taste that savvy in wines from their vineyards, many planted between 100-140 years ago. These vineyards are mostly Zinfandel, a variety that came to California just a few years before the Italian settlers, and which the Italians favoured almost immediately upon their arrival.

They planted a few other varieties along with the Zin: Carignan, Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet, Grenache, Mataro (their name for Mourvèdre) and even a few vines of white Chasselas, among others, to give diversity. These field blends were yielding wine grapes when Monet and Van Gogh were painting their masterpieces.

The head-trained vines in those vineyards are ancient, thick and gnarled now. They don’t yield much fruit, but they clutch the earth in a strong embrace and impart its essence, and the richness of their age, to their grapes.

Dismissed for years as not worth much – even torn out to be replaced by the new darlings of Bordeaux varieties, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – the true nobility of these ancient vines is now being recognised.

Historic Vineyard Society is a non-profit organisation devoted to their preservation (www.historicvineyardsociety.org).

Newer plantings of Zinfandel can certainly produce delicious, worthy wines. The variety goes easy on the tannins, but finds backbone in its acid profile and spiciness on the palate. One of its glories is its ability to age, as was proven at a recent gathering of friends when a double magnum of 1987 Joseph Swan Vineyards’ old-vine Zinfandel had the crowd cheering. ‘I can smell that wine in here,’ yelled a cook from the kitchen.

It was an obscure and ancient Croatian variety called Crljenak Kaštelanski that emigrated to America in the early 19th century and became California’s signature variety, Zinfandel. Unlike the first waves of human immigrants to the United States, who have now all passed on, some of those firstgeneration vines are still with us, providing glorious drinking.

DRY CREEK VALLEY E&J Gallo

If any winemaking company knows a lot about Zinfandel, it’s the world’s largest, E&J Gallo. Founded in 1933, Julio Gallo made the wine and his brother Ernest sold it. They labelled the good stuff ‘Hearty Burgundy’, but it was less hearty than yummy and had absolutely nothing to do with Burgundy.

Times have changed. Gallo has become the 800-pound gorilla of the wine world. The company has many wineries, labels and price points, and makes some very sophisticated, high-quality wines. One of the latter is Gallo’s Signature Series Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, and the winemaker’s signature on the label is that of Gina Gallo, Julio’s granddaughter. She’s dedicated to good wine, as is her husband, Jean- Charles Boisset (see p74).

‘Julio loved Zinfandel,’ says Gina. It’s a penchant among the Italian families who re-established winemaking after Prohibition, and her Signature Series showcases why. The fruit – 93% Zinfandel and 7% Petite Sirah –

comes from some of the oldest (more than 130 years) and best vineyards in the Dry Creek Valley, and a portion of the Zin comes from the outstanding Monte Rosso vineyard in the Sonoma Valley appellation.

Gallo, Signature Series, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County 2017 92

N/A UK www.gallosignatureseries.com There’s a whiff of freshly baked bread on the nose leading to boysenberries, raspberries and blackberries on the palate, with hints of brown sugar, sweet smoke and molasses. It’s ripe but not jammy – in other words, it has attraction, not just extraction. Drink 2020-2028 Alcohol 15.9%

RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY Carlisle

‘I was a software developer,’ says Carlisle’s Mike Officer. ‘This (he gestures at the buildings, silvery steel tanks and rolling hills with their marching rows of vines) is my second career.’ Recently, he and his wife Kendall made 1,000 cases of Papera Ranch Zinfandel 2017, but it wasn’t easy.

‘We had severe heat on 1 and 2 September [about 45°C] and we lost a lot of fruit because many of the pedicels that connect the grape berries to the clusters shrank and died, cutting off the fruit’s water supply.’ They had to haul sorting tables to the vineyards, then sort again in the winery to separate the unripe, high-acid raisins from the good fruit.

It was worth it. ‘The 2017 is very high quality,’ he says. The vineyard is about 96% Zinfandel and 4% Carignan, and was planted in 1934 by Italian immigrant Celestino Papera a few kilometres west of Santa Rosa.

The Papera vineyard may be 86 years old, but Officer says he’s ‘never seen another oldvine vineyard as healthy and in such good shape’. He should know: he’s the president of the aforementioned Historic Vineyard Society.

Carlisle, Papera Ranch, Russian River Valley, Sonoma County 2017 92

N/A UK www.carlislewinery.com

The flavour of red raspberries and blood oranges is Papera’s signature note. Also, ethereal hints of tobacco, spun sugar, redcurrant and macerated cherries. Zinfandel with 4% Carignan, this is silky and graceful on the palate, and the high acidity bodes well for lenghty ageing. Drink 2020-2028 Alc 15%