Is Zinfandel In Danger Of Becoming Blue?

[Rebel Rose]

More and more, I think some consumers are expecting increasing levels of concentration and "blue fruit" flavors in their red wines. Zinfandels are frequently expected, by consumers from the lowest to highest orders of experience, to be dark, cabalicious, blue, and yet still retain their distinctive black pepper character.

In my experience, in the extremely extracted styles, the darker, often sweeter fruit actually competes with the pepper.

One of zinfandel's key characteristics has always been its versatility with food. I don't drink a lot of syrah and other "blue fruit" wines frequently because I usually pair them with rich cuts of meat and roasts, mashed potatoes and other sweet carbs. Especialy in summer when we eat more garden-based dishes and grilled stuff, we enjoy zinfandel.

I also think it sad that many people expect an old vine zin to be a heavier, richer, more condensed version of the zins produced from younger vineyards.

I don't think of the purple-fruit styles of zinfandel as "classic." To me, these styles are more "nouveau," having only been around for 15 years or so, which is not long in the history of California zinfandel. A "classic" zin is one I would describe as being more brick-red in color, or at least with edgings of brick, with red fruit and strong black or white pepper, some pleasant herbaceousness, and in a good zin, additional layers of flavors like tobacco, apricot, sage, coffee, etc.

In an old vine zin, I would actually expect the zin to be more "classic," with stronger pepper and sage, and an obvious bramble/cane character. Personally, I would be disappointed with an old vine zinfandel that mimics a purple-fruit style. In fact, if it did, I would suspect small additions of petit sirah or other inky varietals, which producers sometimes fall back on in colder vintages in order to meet consumer demands for consistency. That's a shame, because the cooler vintages are actually the ones where the spice and bramble characteristics are more evident.

Has anyone else observed a recent trend toward "blue" zins? What do you look for in zinfandel?

[dockhl]

Mary~

This is very interesting to a wine novice. How would you decribe (in these terms) your wines vs. Four Vines (both ones that I am familiar with) to give me a point of reference?

Kathy

[Busboy]

Not to be dense, but what is "blue fruit?"

[Rebel Rose]

This is very interesting to a wine novice. How would you decribe (in these terms) your wines vs. Four Vines (both ones that I am familiar with) to give me a point of reference?

Interesting question. Most of the Four Vines releases are blends, and as they frequently contain percentages of syrah and petite sirah would naturally be more of a "blue fruit" style. We also have 2 releases of zin/syrah and zin/ps this spring and I would classify those as "blue" as well. Four Vines tends to be oakier / we tend to have more licorice. If I were to pick a wine of ours that is solidly in the "red" camp I would volunteer the Cujo zin and the Benito Dusi Old Vine zins.

(BTW, my son is the cellarmaster at Four Vines, so I have several of the Four Vines' black "Zin Bitch" T-shirts I use as nighties! )

[hjshorter]

I also think it sad that many people expect an old vine zin to be a heavier, richer, more condensed version of the zins produced from younger vineyards.

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Why is that sad? Maybe they are taking the "old" part and thinking "aged" or "concentrated." Sounds like an opportunity to educate. (And I'll freely admit to not knowing much about the differences myself.)

[Busboy]

I also think it sad that many people expect an old vine zin to be a heavier, richer, more condensed version of the zins produced from younger vineyards.

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Why is that sad? Maybe they are taking the "old" part and thinking "aged" or "concentrated." Sounds like an opportunity to educate. (And I'll freely admit to not knowing much about the differences myself.)

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And, not to be even denser, I thought the reason people bragged about the age of their vines was that old vines were supposed to produce a "heavier, richer, more condensed" wine (because the yield was lower?).

[rich]

It's an interesting point, but I'm not sure if there is a blue trend. I'm a big Zin fan and I enjoy all types for the specific reasons mentioned. It's the most versatile wine on the market and has the most unique and complex flavors in my opinion.

So while I enjoy the blue versions, I also enjoy the classic bottlings. One of my favorite wines was the 1969 Joseph Swan Zin (and I still have one bottle that's waiting for that perfect moment).

[dockhl]

(BTW, my son is the cellarmaster at Four Vines, so I have several of the Four Vines' black "Zin Bitch" T-shirts I use as nighties!  )

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I know Colin. I used to make him sandwiches when he worked in the tasting room with my daughter

Your descriptions help me a lot; I was thinking along those same lines. I've had your Cujo, and all of the 4V. Very different.

I guess I really like the blends, and big zins. Does this indicate an immature palette? (It's OK, I won't have my feelings hurt )

[Rebel Rose]

And, not to be even denser, I thought the reason people bragged about the age of their vines was that old vines were supposed to produce a "heavier, richer, more condensed" wine (because the yield was lower?).

You're right--the yields are almost always lower, and the fruit is 'more condensed,' but the ultimate expression of that fruit depends on the varietal. So a petite sirah, for instance, would be very inky, with rich plum flavors, huge tannins and a ton of tobacco. An old vine zinfandel, however, will not be like an OV PS--it will have full on raspberry character, lots of black pepper, and bramble instead of tobacco. (Except for Sauret clone zin, which has a pronounced cigar box aroma.)

I know Colin. I used to make him sandwiches when he worked in the tasting room with my daughter 

Hah! That's right!

Your descriptions help me a lot; I was thinking along those same lines. I've had your Cujo, and all of the 4V. Very different.

I guess I really like the blends, and big zins. Does this indicate an immature palette? (It's OK, I won't have my feelings hurt  )

Definitely not immature.

I just find it disturbing that there is such a strong market trend overall for customers to think that all zins must be massive, purple, dense, rich, thick [add your own descriptor here] in order to be impressive. Zinfandel is going through a weird market phase right now, where everyone is complaining about the high alochols in zins, but one almost never hears praise of the lighter, more sprightly and classic zin styles. All the praise goes to the plus-size styles. And so we see more and more producers inclining toward that praise, and adding syrah, petite sirah, and alicante bouschet to their zins . . .

I have been known to enjoy a big blue style myself from time to time ::cough, cough:: okay, frequently . . . but I'm beginning to worry that speaking up for the classic raspberry styles is like tilting at windmills. I lay most of the blame for that on distributor sales reps and retailers who are too lazy to explain zin. They just fall back on "Big! Brawny! Blue!" shelf talkers. "More Bang for the Buck!"

Also, I know you like peppercorn in your zins . . . but there are a lot of people who want to like zinfandel, but absolutely do not like the pepper character.

[Brad Ballinger]

I will have to offer a disclaimer that I haven't sipped much Zinfandel over the past 2-3 years. I used to drink a lot -- and I mean a lot -- of it. What stopped me from purchasing Zinfandel was a combination of quickly-increasing prices (which have experienced a "correction" in the market lately) and over-the-top extraction and alcohol. Whether or not I actually thought of the fruit profile as "blue" didn't factor into it. I'll have to think about it next time I try a Zin from a recent vintage (the only ones in my cellar now are from 1995 or earlier and come from a winery in Cupertino).

I usually associate "blue fruit" with Syrah wines, particular New World Syrah/Shiraz. The Zins that turned me off were almost more port-like than New World Syrah-like. Like Mary, I like the spicy, peppery, briary, bramble berry style. I don't see Nalle in my market anymore. Too bad. I've never seen Scherrer in my market, and don't get to places where I can buy it as much as I used to. And Peterson has strangley gone into hiding. Those producers (Doug Nalle, Fred Scherrer, and Fred Peterson) make the style of zinfandel I generally like -- where I can pick up a bottle and open it that day while grilling something in the back yard.

[doviakw]

Not to be dense, but what is "blue fruit?"

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Alright, I'll jump on the Dense-O-Meter! Does "blue" mean blueberries? Blue plums? Aronia?

[Brad Ballinger]

Not to be dense, but what is "blue fruit?"

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Alright, I'll jump on the Dense-O-Meter! Does "blue" mean blueberries? Blue plums? Aronia?

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I have no idea what aronia is. But, yes, blue fruit means (primarily) what you suggested. Some would add purple fruit (blackberries, marionberries) to that category because they are more "blue" than raspberries, for example.

[Rebel Rose]

I have no idea what aronia is. 

Ho! Neither did I! But I just wiki'd, and it's a chokecherry. Comes in red, purple and black, all highly pigmented and very, very astringent.

Aronia melanocarpa (chokeberry) has attracted scientific interest due to its deep purple, almost black pigmentation that arises from dense contents of phenolic phytochemicals, especially anthocyanins. Total anthocyanin content in chokeberries is 1480 mg per 100 g of fresh berries, and proanthocyanidin concentration is 664 mg per 100 g (Wu et al. 2004, 2006). Both values are among the highest measured in plants to date.

I can't wait to use this one on the wine geeks . . . "Ah, the colour reminds one of purple aronia, and the astringent tannins, also reminiscent of aronia . . ."

Thanks, doviakw!

[JohnL]

To me blue fruit means blueberry notes. I have tasted this in many wines from many places.

"Blue Zins" sounds suspiciously like another industry attempt to simplify or categorize wines.

The "danger"part is maybe a giveaway!--lol

By the way, I have no idea what blue fruit and concentration have to do with each other.

As for the age of vines. I recently read somewhere that vines do reach an age where the there are diminishing returns in both vigor of the fruit and quality. So "old is better" needs a bit of qualifying.

as for zin it seems to thrive in warmer climes--dry creek in Sonoma for example.

last week at dinner, we tasted a 1996 Guigal La Mouline, a 2003 Domaine Pegau De Capo CdP and:

a 1995 Ridge Lytton Springs (zin blend).

I find that zins are best drunk on the early side but there are a handful that do age well. This Ridge actually held its own in this very stellar company, It was a wonderful and very complex wine.

Edited May 10, 2007 by JohnL (log)

[Don Giovanni]

Mary,

I think you are on to something that is affecting the world...this is global warming...the Garnacha grape while under study by experts in France saw that in 2005 during the heat wave in France the color of one site with good fertile soil mimic the other site with bio mass of 3 x and soil very poor clay high density soil...the color seemed to equal intensity...the red to orange color was transformation into the red to purple - blue fruit...so by this study I have come to surmise that...your conundrum is not an easy issued to address...the changes in the anthocyanins content and concentrations...wiliest I do find that a Zin that is with

red fruit and strong black or white pepper

is available and yes skin contact and hang time are a part of this color extraction...I will state due to the change in the weather...getting increasingly hotter the color of the fruit in hot arid areas will be purple and the cooler areas will have a color profile change from red to blue...heading toward purple... this only nature can fix...to a point...so the consumer is tuned in on blue fruit this tells me they want ripe cool climate grapes that get hot days and cool nights... so yes I have seen blue zins and purple ones...the blue that can capture the pepper and the spice are very ripe cool climate fruits grown in the mountains...the purple are either extracted and blended with as you called it an ink grape...this leaves all of us thinking just how versatile and rewarding it can be to find pleasure in both...