The 21st annual Zinfandel Festival in San Francisco this week, sponsored by the Association of Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (ZAP), highlights why California’s signature grape is worth preserving.  Zinfandel is not just the charmingly fruity wine that we all love, it is a chameleon of a grape that expresses its diverse origins and reveals true complexity and signature spiciness with age.  ZAP works to preserve this diversity by sponsoring a long-term zinfandel research program – conducted by the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) – whose aim is to find …

Zinfandel has been grown in California since the 1850’s and, unlike many of the early-planted varietals, zinfandel has maintained its popularity to this day, representing the 2nd most widely planted red wine grape in the state.  We love youthful zinfandel for its fruity charm, but it’s the old vine zinfandels that we treasure for their intensity of flavor, structure, spiciness and most of all, expression of terroir.
To record and preserve the diversity of zinfandel expression, the University of California, Davis – with major support from the Association of Zinfandel Advocates …

Food and wine charities are not new.  Professionals in the hospitality industry who participate in these events are by nature, generous people, and so are their patrons.  But when Dry Creek Valley vintner Clay Mauritson asked busy restaurateur, hotelier and Michelin star Chef Charlie Palmer to help him put together Project Zin – a charity to raise funds and awareness for Down syndrome which affects Mauritson’s son – Chef Palmer was standing by.
Clay and Charlie’s friendship goes back over a decade, when Clay’s family began helping Palmer develop vineyards in …

Zinfandel, like most reds, goes great with BBQ and there was plenty of that at the Good Eats & Zinfandel pairing at Fort Mason on Thursday as part of Zinfandel Advocates and Producers’ 20th anniversary celebration.  But with zinfandel’s softer tannin structure and moderate acidity, there is a broader range of dishes it can be enjoyed with, from spicy hot to vegetarian to soups, even sashimi!  Fifty zinfandel producers teamed up with Bay Area chefs to produce mouthwatering pairings that kept throngs of fans crawling the venue.  Here are some …

In a valley dominated by cabernet sauvignon vines, Robert Biale Vineyards is committed to zinfandel.  Zinfandel has been a way of life for this Napa Valley native.  Robert Biale’s grandparents Pietro and Christina moved to California from Northern Italy in the 1920’s and acquired property in Napa in 1937.  They planted zinfandel because it was popular at the time and being practical immigrants, appreciated the grape’s generous and consistent yields of 4-5 tons/acre.  They, and their son Aldo and wife Clementina, were farmers who grew vegetables, grapes, prunes and walnuts …

There are few grapes around the world that can be said to be a country’s ‘signature’ grape – those grapes that do so well and are so identified with a region they are rarely cultivated elsewhere on such a large scale.  For example, malbec from Argentina, carmenere from Chile or Pinotage from South Africa.  In the U.S., that grape is indisputably zinfandel whose full-bodied and fruity wines are so beloved.  In 2009, zinfandel accounted for 10.9% of the California crush by volume, making it the 2nd leading grape variety after chardonnay …

As one drives up Howell Mountain from the foggy Napa Valley floor, one quickly appreciates the attributes of cultivating vines on the mountain – it’s sunny.  And if you continue up – all the way up – you will reach an idyllic clearing with luminous sun, towering redwoods, and silence.  This is Black Sears.  
When owners Joyce Black and Jerre Sears acquired the property in 1979, it was planted with cabernet sauvignon and zinfandel vines.  For years, they farmed the vineyards and sold the fruit to some of Napa Valley’s most …