Great wines from ZAP

ZAP is the Grand Canyon of wine tastings. There's no way to experience everything, and you're certain to leave overwhelmed (in this case, drunkenly). With 250 wineries pouring nearly 1000 wines for thousands of visitors, you need a strategy.

This year, mine was to concentrate on single-vineyard wines from wineries I thought might be good. The flaw in this was that I tasted almost no wines in the affordable $10-$20 range. Single-vineyard Zin goes for $25 and up these days, and those wines aren't selling, so for many consumers this list is completely beside the point.

Why did I do it? Hedonism. I wanted to taste the best Zins from the best places from the best producers. Why not? It's my tongue, not yours.

How did I choose the wine booths to visit? Anybody who had made wines I liked in the past, I tried them again (that's me and Kent Rosenblum in the photo). That's a lot of wineries. I also tried all the new wineries who were making single-vineyard wines. (I have something to say about this worthy of its own post, so I'll write it tomorrow.)

I skipped wineries I haven't liked previously (sorry). I didn't bother with "brand" wines -- wines with cute names made from grapes from all over the place. I mostly avoided corporate wines, though I'll say again that Ravenswood's single-vineyard Zins are, as a group, still as good and as interesting as anyone's in California.

I tasted a LOT more wines than the ones listed below, but in order to keep moving, if I didn't think a wine was worth 90 points I didn't spend any time on it.

A few general observations:

* 2007 was a very good year for California Zinfandel. Dry Creek Valley in particular had an excellent '07; I didn't realize this until I looked though the list of wines I liked best.

* I'm still not a big fan of Sierra Foothills Zins or Lodi Zins, not in this league anyway. Napa Zins are a good bet.

* Balance is coming back into vogue, at least at the high end. Just last year I wrote "hot and sweet" in my notebook a lot, even in this price range. Not this year.

* However, spiciness is still an exception, which is a shame because that's a taste characteristic I like in Zins. Most winemakers seem to be going for all fruit and shying away from pepperiness.

* That said, I have to stipulate that I'm not the average Zin drinker. Matt Cline told me on Friday that he once took a stuck-fermentation wine to ZAP to demonstrate what could go wrong with Zinfandel, but because the flawed wine was sweet, everybody loved it. I was thinking of that at one booth where I grimaced at an unpleasantly hot and sweet wine and a woman next to me said, "This is my favorite wine so far!" So if you like your wines big and sweet, you're wasting your time reading my notes.

* Here's my favorite ZAP moment: Hagafen Cellars was pouring a reserve labeled "Prix," not Hagafen. I asked if 'pricks' [rhymes with Trix] was a different winery. Taken aback, the winery rep huffed, "We call it 'pree' [as in Grand Prix] when it's our reserve wine." I chuckled. "Oh, thaaat's how you pronounce it. Of course it is!" Good luck with that one. Just remember, Prix aren't for kids -- unless you're a priest (you know, 'cause they have the communion wine. Of COURSE that's what I meant.)

Moving right along, here are the wines I liked best:

Bedrock Wine Company Bedrock Vineyard Heirloom Sonoma Valley 2008 (NA): Intense blackberry, dense but not rich, with pretty violet notes and some white pepper. Leaves a lovely blackberry finish. Bedrock Wine Co. is the first project for Morgan Twain-Peterson, the young prodigy son of Ravenswood winemaker Joel Peterson. The Petersons own the vineyard, which is a mix of more-than-100-year-old Zinfandel vines planted by George Hearst and a grab bag of whatever other black grapes were popular in the late 1800s. This is a field blend, and a great one. 92

Bedrock Wine Company Lorenzo's Heirloom Dry Creek Valley 2008 (NA): Complex wine with great black and red fruit and some pepper. Interesting old-vine field blend, mostly Zinfandel with Carignane and other mixed blacks. 91

Bella Vetta Jack's Cabin Rockpile Zinfandel 2006 ($35): Strong minerality anchors this wine, which also offers plenty of Blackberry and raspberry and a nice cocoa note. Tannic on the finish. 91

Bradford Mountain Winery Grist Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2006 ($34): Packed with great blackberry fruit, it's intense but not hot. Good acidity keeps it lively. 91

Brazin Cellars Fall Creek Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($24): Superb value in a single-vineyard Zin; best in its class at the Chronicle Wine Competition, and it showed well again at ZAP. Nice raspberry fruit, quite spicy, well-balanced, and pretty blueberry on long finish. 94

Brazin Cellars Monte Rosso Sonoma Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($34): Slightly baked cherry fruit with light tannins and a long finish that elevates it. 90

Brazin Cellars Sommer Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($22): Fairly straightforward blackberry fruit, pleasant and easy to love. 90

Carol Shelton Wines Wild Thing Cox Vineyard Mendocino County 2006 ($28): A spicy wine with cherry fruit and notes of cinnamon and chile pepper. Made with uninoculated yeast, hence the name (sorry, Mitch Williams fans). 91

DH Gustafson Family Vineyards Estate Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($36): Intense blackberry with a nice cocoa note. This new winery was built by a Minnesota construction magnate atop a mountain and is architecturally and visually stunning. It's nice to see that the young vines are as impressive as the site. 90

Dashe Cellars Florence Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($32): Nice blueberry fruit, medium weight, straightforward for Dashe, but in a pleasurable way. 90

Dashe Cellars Todd Brothers Ranch Old Vines Alexander Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($32): Packed with deep dark fruit, yet an elegant mouthfeel. Density without heaviness. Excellent. Michael Dashe said, "At the house we're drinking Todd Brothers '99s. They age so well." I believe it, but you don't need to wait. 93

Downing Family Vineyards Fly by Night H&H Vineyard Oakville Zinfandel 2006 ($24): Well-balanced wine with blueberry and blackberry fruit and some appealing earthiness from a CCOF-certified organic vineyard. 91

Frank Family Vineyards Napa Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($37): Full-bodied wine with dense blueberry fruit and plush tannins. 91

Hendry Block 28 Napa Valley Zinfandel 2006 ($30): Dark cherry and mocha fruit with thick tannins; nice blackberry on the finish. 90

Klinker Brick Winery Old Ghost Old Vine Lodi Zinfandel 2007 (NA): An unusual wine, savory with a salted pork note, though there's plenty of cherry fruit. Some oak on the finish. Give it a couple years in the cellar. 91

Kokomo Winery Mounts Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($27): Mounts Vineyard grapes are naturally high pH, and nobody handles them better than Kokomo winemaker Erik Miller. You get delicious blueberry fruit, ripe and soft, but not flabby. Curvaceous, if you will. 91

Kokomo Winery Perotti Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($34): Long-lasting taste with intertwining cherry, pepper and earth flavors. 91

Kokomo Winery Timber Crest Vineyards Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($32): My favorite of a very strong lineup. Blackberry fruit with great acidity, so much that it hints of citrus. Tremendous balance makes this an excellent food wine that you could drink right away or cellar for a decade. Masterful. 94

Outpost Estate Wines Howell Mountain Zinfandel 2007 (NA): Spicy and peppery, with cherry fruit in the background. A savory finish. Excellent food wine that promises to stay interesting throughout the bottle. 93

Papapietro Perry Timbercrest Farms Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($45): Couldn't be more different from the Kokomo wine from the same vineyard, but also excellent. Spicy, even briny, wine with raspberry fruit and lots of pepper. Complex and savory, with a long finish. 92

Peachy Canyon Winery Especial Paso Robles Zinfandel 2007 ($40): Made from a block of vines in the Mustang Springs Vineyard that are clones from the original Peachy Canyon Vineyard. A very good wine in the big style, with blackberry fruit, a violet note and an appealing jamminess on the finish. 91

Pellegrini Family Vineyards Eight Cousins Vineyard Russian River Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($26): Black plum and cherry; all fruit with an elegant mouthfeel. 90

Perry Creek Winery Altitude 2401 Fair Play Farms Sierra Foothills Zinfandel 2006 ($28): Nice cherry fruit with some earthiness. Well-managed tannins. 90

R&B Cellars Zydeco Bingham Ranch Napa Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($29): Nice ripe cherry fruit with an interesting smoky note; long finish. 91

Ravenswood Bedrock Vineyard Sonoma Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($50): Winemaker Joel Peterson owns this vineyard, and he and his son Morgan make very different wines from it. Here, Joel goes for fruit and gets it -- nice black cherry with a pretty, perfumey note, great acidity and a long finish, albeit with tannins that imply a few years in the cellar would be a good thing. 92

Ravenswood Dickerson Vineyard Napa Valley Zinfandel 2007 ($35): Dense, with great cherry fruit and intensity, and a very long finish. Still pretty tannic and needs some cellar time, but the history of this wine shows it should drink well for more than a decade. 94

Ridge Benito Dusi Ranch Paso Robles Zinfandel 2007 ($30): Straightforward but delightful, this wine delivers very bright cherry fruit with some pomegranate. Soft tannins on the long finish. 91

Rock Wall Wine Company Monte Rosso Reserve Sonoma Valley Zinfandel 2007 (NA): Clean cherry and raspberry fruit with good balance and plenty of fruit on the finish. 90

Rubicon Estate Edizione Pennino Rutherford Zinfandel 2007 ($45): Blackberry fruit intially, turns a little brambly, as if you can taste the berry skins. A hint of mocha on the nice finish. 91

Sbragia Family Vineyards Gino's Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2006 ($28): Interesting wine with cherry fruit, some bacon fat and baked bread and a long finish. 92

Scott Harvey Wines Jana Old Vine Napa Valley Zinfandel 2005 ($35): Made from century-old vines from the Korte Ranch north of St. Helena. This wine delivers nice ripe cherry fruit with notes of cherry tobacco. Excellent balance. 93

Scott Harvey Wines Vineyard 1869 Amador County Zinfandel 2007 ($45): A few other wineries make wine from this vineyard -- which holds the oldest known vines in the state -- but Scott Harvey always does the best job. He should; he used to live there. This complex, potent wine has flavors of cherry, cinnamon and earth and a lingering finish. 92

Seghesio Family Vineyards Home Ranch Alexander Valley Zinfandel 2008 ($36): Always a favorite of mine, this wine offers dense blackberry fruit with a pretty violet note and nice acidity. 92

Seghesio Family Vineyards Rockpile Zinfandel 2008 ($36): Pretty yet packed with fruit, this wine has dense black cherry with the slate minerality and good acidity that Rockpile is famous for. Superb. 94

Storr's Winery Rusty Ridge Santa Clara County Zinfandel 2006 (NA): Balanced and elegant, with nice cherry fruit and some chocolate on the finish. 92

Three Wine Company Evangelho Vineyard Contra Costa County 2007 (NA): Nice blackberry fruit with some baked earth and a pretty violet note. 91

Working hard at ZAP

In some jobs, people get their hands dirty.

Here, Alder Yarrow (right) of Vinography and I show that we put our mouth where our, er ... we're willing to lick where angels fear to ... um ...

Lots of Zinfandels, so few punchlines. Tasting notes to come, but I will say right now there's a very good reason we're standing in front of the Kokomo Wines booth at ZAP with our tongues hanging out.

Wines to look for at ZAP

San Francisco's biggest public wine tasting -- ZAP -- is, like many of today's Zinfandels, completely over the top. With 250 wineries pouring, it's impossible to try them all.

I'm here to help. I got a sneak preview Thursday night at Good Eats, my favorite part of the annual Zin fest, in which about 50 wineries poured a couple of Zins each. Every winery paired with a different gourmet food purveyor, making it not just an orgy of overdrinking, but a total pork fest, and I mean that in the best possible way.

I can't comment on the 200 wineries that will be pouring on Saturday who weren't at Good Eats. But these were my favorites from the 50 who were there, and they will also be around at the main event.

Artezin Wines: 2006 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel

Carol Shelton Wines: 2006 Wild Thing Mendocino County Zinfandel

Edmeades Winery: 2007 Ciapusci Vineyard Mendocino County Zinfandel

Scott Harvey Wines: 2005 Jana Old Vine Napa Valley Zinfandel; 2007 Vineyard 1869 Amador County Zinfandel
(That's Scott and wife Jana in the photo)

Klinker Brick Winery: 2005 and 2007 Old Ghost Old Vine Lodi Zinfandel

Outpost Estate: 2007 Howell Mountain Zinfandel

Peachy Canyon Winery: 2007 Especial Paso Robles Zinfandel

R&B Cellars: 2007 Zydeco Bingham Ranch Napa Valley Zinfandel

Ravenswood: 2007 (and 1997) Dickerson Vineyard Napa Valley Zinfandel

Ridge Vineyards: 2007 Geyserville

Rock Wall Wine Company: 2007 Monte Rosso Reserve Sonoma County Zinfandel

Storr's Winery: 2006 Rusty Ridge Santa Clara County Zinfandel

A few observations:
* Kent Rosenblum sold his eponymous winery to Diageo and is now making wines with his daughter at Rock Wall, while still representing Rosenblum Winery at events. He had to walk back and forth across the hall Thursday to pour on both sides. Both wineries made a 2007 from Monte Rosso Vineyard. For me, the Rock Wall wine was significantly better. I found the Rosenblum Winery version to have a cough syrupy finish, while the Rock Wall wine had cleaner, brighter cherry fruit. Follow the man, not his name.

* Speaking of which, the pourer at Rock Wall said to me, because I started with the Monte Rosso and moved backward, "You're going in the wrong order." I said, and fully believe, "Zinfandel drinkers are never wrong."

* In a different outcome of corporation-swallows-winery, Ravenswood continues to impress me with its single-vineyard Zinfandels. The 2007 Dickerson Napa Valley might have been my favorite wine of the night: dense, with great fruit and intensity, and a very long finish. The wine is still pretty tannic and needs some cellar time, but the beautiful 1997 Dickerson that winemaker Joel Peterson poured alongside it proved that it should be worth the wait.

* Normally I prefer Ridge Geyserville to Lytton Springs, and this was the case again Thursday. Geyserville is the most elegant of Zinfandels (it's sometimes not listed as Zin because it's a field blend that drops below 75% Zin some years) and therefore should be food-friendly. That said, with the outstanding Filet Mignon Steak Tartare served up by Lark Creek Steak, the Lytton Springs was better, because the steak tamed that wine's tougher tannins. This puts the lie to the idea that the elegant wine is always better with food. (I'd still rather have a bottle of the Geyserville, though).

* R&B Cellars makes a very nice $12 Zin from Lodi, the 2007 Swingsville, an old Bargain Wines favorite of mine. But if I'm not paying for the bottle, give me that single-vineyard Napa Zin.

* I tried a Zinfandel I disliked as overripe -- Port-like, raisiny and a little sweet -- and then tried it again with Moroccan-spiced lamb, and suddenly it was actually pretty good. Maybe that's the secret to rescuing over-the-top wines: throw lamb at them.

* I get tired of reading older wine writers complaining about how Zinfandel was better back when they were younger. Yes, there are sweet, hot, over-the-top Zins. But you can spit them out. I found plenty of Zins to enjoy at this event, and there will be 5 times as many wineries pouring Saturday. If you can't find something to like there, you can't call yourself a wine lover.

A prince of wine moves to sake

Claudio LoCascio won't like it, but it's fair to describe him as a prince of the wine industry. His father, Leonardo LoCascio, founded and still runs Winebow, one of the leading U.S. importers of Italian wine and a player in wine from all over the world.

Claudio, 23, is the youngest of Leonardo's four children. The older three were not interested in taking over the wine business, at least not yet (it's still possible as Leonardo was a vice president at Citibank before founding Winebow).

Claudio wasn't either, at first. He majored in economics at Dartmouth and spent his internship working at a private equity fund.

"I just hated it," Claudio said, over raw oysters at Swan Oyster Depot (his choice of restaurant). "You spend 9 to 9 at your desk, eat lunch at your desk. The priorities are all wrong."

Claudio minored in Japanese, more out of travel-lust than ambition. "I wanted to study somewhere I hadn't been," he said, and if you look through Winebow's portfolio, that eliminates just about the entire wine-producing world.

He ended up in Chiba, a city that neighbors Tokyo, and it's there that he discovered sake. I don't want to overstate the epiphany: It wasn't like True Sake's Beau Timken, who discovered sake in South Africa and really hasn't drunk anything else since. It was more like, this is better and a lot different than the sake I've had at sushi bars in the U.S.

"The most popular sakes in America tend to be good sushi sakes -- the fruitier, more floral daiginjos and ginjos," Claudio says. "I like a heartier, earthier sake. I like that kind of wine as well. What I like is to have sake with a meal. I cook at home, and I make hearty food. My mother is German, so that's her influence. I like sakes that have balance and have some character."

Still, it wasn't Claudio's idea to start importing sake. It's not exactly a booming market in the U.S., not like wine. Personally I think premium sake is a great drink and superb value, but it's still generally found only in Japanese restaurants and supermarkets.

Leonardo called Claudio and said he was going to vacation in Japan, and would Claudio like to meet him in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island? Since Hokkaido has perhaps the best seafood in the world (I still drool remembering the huge, sweet scallops), that was an easy yes.

Leonardo told Claudio he was thinking of adding sake to Winebow's portfolio, and naturally he had a bigger gameplan in mind.

"Just in New York, there's maybe 100 Japanese-owned restaurants, most of them high end," Claudio says. "They have very few Italian wines at all."

The idea was, a sake portfolio would get Winebow in the door at Japanese and other Asian restaurants, where its salesman could then talk about improving the wine selection (which, in most cases, isn't hard to do). Italian whites in particular are excellent with raw fish, certainly better than the mass-produced Chardonnays offered by so many places that don't pay attention to their wine list.

Soon after graduation, Claudio became the sake brand manager for Winebow.

It's unusual, but not unique, for a wine company to import sake. Sausalito's Vine Connections has the bizarre combination of Argentine Malbecs and really outstanding sakes. But most sake in the U.S. is imported by specialists like World Sake Imports (the folks behind the annual Joy of Sake show), Wine of Japan, and others.

Even more so than with wine, sake producers value long-term relationships, and many of the great ones were already taken. But Claudio did have the advantage of looking for a different taste profile than most importers. He also decided, initially at least, to narrow his geographic focus.


Almost all of Winebow's sake producers are located in the rural northern prefecture of Akita, which is well-respected for producing hearty, complex sakes. The one exception, Ichishima Shuzo in Niigata, produces the most beginner-friendly sake in Winebow's portfolio, the light, slightly sweet Silk, a junmai that's reminiscent of a German Riesling. I wouldn't hesitate to pour this for anyone who hasn't tried sake before.


I'll be honest -- most of the Akita prefecture portfolio was rough for my tastes. I confess that I tend to best like "wine-like" sakes, particularly ginjos with a fruity character. The one sake I really liked was Tenju Shuzo's Chokaisan Junmai Daiginjo, which was probably where Claudio's sake tastes and mine intersect: It's rich and full-flavored for a daiginjo, with flavors of ripe pear, herbal and licorice notes and a very long finish.

Claudio says he hasn't had any trouble selling sake despite the fact that he doesn't look particularly Japanese. "I've done a lot of dinners," he said. "What the sake industry needs is a national brand. You have no idea how many tastings I've been to where people say, 'I've had this before,' but they didn't remember until they taste it."

I'm rooting for Winebow to succeed in improving the market penetration of sake for a number of reasons. The sake industry in Japan is in crisis, as most young Japanese spurn it as a drink of their grandparents' generation in favor of beer and shochu. Sake brewing is such hard work that few people want to go into the profession. Yet quality is higher than it has ever been because of advances in technology. The U.S. market is vital for keeping small family-owned breweries alive.

At the same time, the U.S. market needs to do a better job of presenting sake when it's fresh -- and not overcharging for it. Hopefully a company with Winebow's reach can help here as well.

I've had the dubious opportunity to taste a lot of year-old sake, and let me tell you, with very few exceptions sake needs to be drunk within 6 to 12 months or it's just not any good. I'm talking about the difference between a fresh and lively quaff, and nail-polish remover. Yet too many sakes I see in restaurants are too old, or have been open too long (sake will last a couple of weeks once opened.)

"It takes a month to get sake to New York from Japan," Claudio says. "We're working on direct containers to California."

As for the prices, it's outrageous how much markup some restaurants (Napa Valley's Go Fish, for example) take on sake. They can't get away with charging 5 times retail on a bottle of wine because people have some idea of the price. But with sake, it's gouge away.

"The vast majority of Japanese restaurants in America are not Japanese-owned," Claudio says. "They're owned by Chinese and Koreans and that turns it from a work of pride into a business. They know they can sell cheap sake at a big markup and no one will know about it."

Yet the sake list isn't necessarily good at Japanese-owned restaurants either. In short, there are very few places where you can have a few different interesting glasses of sake. I'd like to name an exception here in San Francisco, but I cannot.

"The Japanese restaurants want people to focus on the food," Claudio says. "They don't want the sake to overshadow the sushi."

All of that said, Claudio says -- and if it's fresh, I agree -- "I would much rather spend $75 (retail) on a sake than on a wine. There's no money spent on marketing. It's all going into the bottle."

Unfortunately, while great sake is a bargain, it's still not cheap. Claudio thinks the point of inflection, where you go from taking your chances to having great chances, is $25 to $30 retail. It's tough to get people to spend that when $12 wines are all the rage -- and $12 sakes, generally, aren't so great.

But if you're willing to spend $25 a bottle, Claudio suggests that sake will go with way more foods than you might have imagined.

"If you're having spaghetti with clam sauce, a honjozo would go well with it," he says. "If you're having pizza, I'd have fuutsu. It's hearty."

Drink like a pro

Do professional drinkers get drunk?

It's a good question, and one we tend to shy away from answering. The answer is yes, of course -- but professionally.

Wine critics spit when doing official tastings. But we drink, too, probably more than anyone other than serious alcoholics. It's not unusual for a party of 6 wine industry folks to put away 6 bottles of wine -- after starting with cocktails. I've seen people leave to get a beer afterwards.

So then the question is, how do people who drink for a living avoid the health and legal problems associated with drinking?

And, is there any way that professional drinking behavior can help the average drinker do the same?

I think so. Here are a few keys.

1) Drink early, drink often! Your taste buds are freshest early in the day; this is why most wineries conduct sample testing first thing in the morning. I'm not suggesting wine with breakfast (cereal is difficult to pair) but why not have a glass (or a cocktail) with lunch? We've gotten puritanical about mid-day drinking, but you're better off having one (1!) drink at lunch, one drink when you get off work, and one drink at dinner than three drinks in a row. To me, it's fun to be slightly relaxed or mildly buzzed, but not much fun to be polluted, which I always regret the next day.

2) Drink plenty of water. No professional tasting happens without lots of room temperature bottled water. Room temperature makes it easier to drink a lot, quickly. You have to keep drinking water even when you don't feel thirsty. Make the waiters keep refilling your water glass, and tell them "no ice please." You'll be much happier the next day -- this is the best way to avoid hangovers.

3) Avoid sugary drinks. You never see professional drinkers having a Coke between rounds. Thirst means your body needs water, not sugar.

4) It's not how you feel, it's how you act that counts. If you can't restrain your behavior, stop drinking. Now. Don't finish that sip.
It's expected, at a wine dinner, to be more cheerful and talkative as the night goes on. But if you do something really embarrassing -- disrobe, punch someone, technicolor yawn -- people will talk about it for years, and the wine industry is a small world.
Before becoming a professional drinker, I was never famous for my self-control: I usually speak my mind, regardless of the consequences. But there's a huge difference between speaking your mind and acting out. Once you feel yourself about to do the latter, you have to stop.

5) Eat while you drink. One advantage about writing about wine, as opposed to cocktails, is that food is always served. Coffee won't slow down your drunkenness -- it will just make you drunk and jittery -- but food will.

6) Sniff everything before you drink it, even at dinner, just as you would if you were doing a professional tasting. For one thing, this builds your anticipation. You also get more nuances from smelling a wine than drinking it, so if you haven't smelled it first, your first gulp is just imbibing liquor, not flavor.

7) Sip, don't gulp. I like to drink, don't get me wrong. But if I can get 20 sips out of the same glass where someone else gets only 10, I'm enjoying it twice as much.

8) Don't take two rapid drinks in succession. Let the finish play out before you enjoy the next drink.

9) Plan ahead for how to get home. I rarely drive home from an event, but I know many people do. They are the unlucky ones who stop drinking an hour before the end of the meal and forgo the dessert wines.
If I do have to drive, I'm not ashamed to say, "I'm not ready. We have to sit here awhile." Be honest with yourself -- if you're not sure you're able to drive, then don't.
I like a digestif, but they're even better at home.

10) If you don't like a drink, don't finish it. Waiters are always surprised when I leave nearly full glasses of wine or cocktails I've paid for. I'm surprised that the default use of booze is to finish it even if you don't like it. Why? Do you need to be more drunk? Do you need the extra calories?
You can only drink a finite amount of alcohol in a year; we may not know what the limit is, but we know there is one. Why waste part of your allotment on something you don't like?

11) Don't let teetotallers tell you how to drink. One of the reasons the U.S. has such a poor relationship with alcohol is that we still have plenty of puritans who considers any drinking evil. I was shocked to learn that the CDC considers "regular drinkers" anyone who had 12 drinks in the previous year! In France, you wouldn't be a "regular drinker" if you only had 12 drinks per month.
This is why our alcoholism rate is high, and why young adults nearly kill themselves by drinking 21 shots on their 21st birthday. It's not just the alcohol -- it's the sanctimony. Some tight-cheeked Bible thumper, who doesn't realize Jesus turned water into wine, tells people drinking is a sin, so plenty of people don't incorporate drinking into their daily life in a sustainable way, and only go at it when they've decided it's time to sin.
Wine is a gift from God; it's all over the Bible. Leave grapes alone in a barrel and they will turn to wine by themselves. If that's not part of God's plan, I don't know what is.
Take your advice on drinking from professional drinkers, from your physician (ask if she or he has a glass of wine with dinner), from medical experts. But not from teetotallers. You wouldn't ask somebody who doesn't ice skate to teach you a triple-axle. Think about it -- preferably with a glass of wine in your hand.

ZAP ticket winner: Sex or the single man?

Thanks to the folks who participated in my contest giving away two free $59 tickets to the ZAP public Zinfandel tasting, the biggest wine tasting of the year in San Francisco.

I'm going to announce the winner later today. Before doing so, I thought I'd ask for your opinions.

I confess that I'm not tech-savvy enough to run any kind of poll that would preclude ballot-stuffing. Hell, even Dr. Vino's not tech-savvy enough to do that, and he's a Dr.! So there's no actual vote here -- you have to write a comment on which guy should win, and why.

The contest asked people to describe their best Zinfandel-drinking experience in 100 words or less. Here are the finalists.

Casey wrote,

The first time I met who would later become my father in law, he shared a bottle of Martinelli Jackass Hill Zin with us. I remember clearly because I was new to wine and though Martinelli made sparkling grape juice. That night I sexed up his daughter in their guest room who like the wine, was luscious and full bodied.
We eventually married started our wine cellar and visit Martinelli every year.

Alan wrote,

The first serious wine that I purchased and enjoyed was the Rosenblum Zinfandel Richard Sauret Vineyard 2002. I was in the process of getting divorced, living in a hotel room, and wanted some wine to help drown my sorrows. Went to the local BevMo, browsed the shelves, and bought this wine. It was fantastic and started my new "love affair" with Zinfandels. We've been happy together ever since.

It's an interesting choice: Sex or the single man? Though I guess Alan could argue that he's just as attached as Casey, and in fact he's attached to the fermented grape itself.

Please comment below, and if Casey and Alan are reading this, now is a good time to get in touch with me. Good luck!

Update: Well, it's unanimous with commenters both here and on Facebook; it seems sex and a happy ending conquer all. Casey, please make your profile public long enough for me to figure out who you are. As for whether you take your bride or your father-in-law to ZAP, that's up to you.

Two stories from the Right Bank

Though just yesterday I was profiled as blogger by Tom Wark, tomorrow I'm back in print, with a story on Saint-Emilion in the Los Angeles Times. (That's Hubert de Bouard de Laforest of Chateau Angelus, at right, in front of his winery)

On the same visit to France in October, I got to spend a delightful hour in the company of always gracious Christian Moueix (below, standing in his laboratory), and you can read all about that at Wine Review Online.



So that's my double dose of Right Bank links for the day. For me, 2010 is starting out to be an excellent vintage, but we'll just have to see how it develops. I certainly hope for a long finish, with good fruits and no bitterness.

(Oh man, how long can this tortured wine analogy go on?)

I wish I could say I felt joyful tonight, but the Massachusetts Senate result has me pretty morose. Apparently the Democrat ran a lousy race, even calling Curt Schilling a Yankee fan when he dissed her. So maybe the voters genuinely picked the better candidate. I'm trying to feel a positive spin on it because I now foresee absolutely nothing getting done in Congress for, what, ever? Maybe? The Republicans have made it clear they will be purely obstructionist, but I don't see the Democrats losing 10 seats this year so it's not like the Republicans will take over and push their own agenda either.

I'm very depressed over this. I didn't love the health-care reform bill, but nobody did, and I strongly believe -- and have for years -- that health care is our biggest issue and we have to address it. This probably kills the whole bill, ends a year's work, and just as when Hillary Clinton failed, takes health-care reform off the table for more than a decade. I'll tell you who's partying tonight -- health insurance companies.

I'm rambling here, but if the Republicans were a responsible party of conservative views, this one election wouldn't matter much. We could use such a party. But the Republicans of Michael Steele and Rush Limbaugh are not that, they've become little kids who just say no to everything. Unfortunately that does represent the political views of about 30% of Americans. And with the tea-party morons on the rise, things will just get worse.

On the bright side ... those Right Bank wines are still mighty tasty ...