2005 Giana Zinfandel - 9 (of 10) points
"I never cease to be amazed at the power of Zinfandel. At the last major Pinot Tasting in San Francisco, I thought to myself that maybe, just maybe, Pinot Noir had unseated Zinfandel as the most exciting grape for the Bay Area wine drinking public. But who was I kidding. I simply just didn't remember the extent of the reveling hordes that descend on San Francisco's Fort Mason Center for the event known as ZAP. When I emerged for a breath of fresh air from the trade and media portion of the tasting, the line to get in to the tasting stretched all the way back into the depths of the parking lot, perhaps 200 yards and 500 people deep. And that was 30 minutes before the doors opened. Three hours later, you could hardly walk in the Festival Pavilion for all the Zinfandel lovers crowding in to get a taste. That is, as they say, all part of the experience. Zinfandel Advocates and Producers, the marketing and advocacy organization for the grape that California has designated its own (and only narrowly avoided declaring the actual bona fide State Wine grape) puts on quite a production every January, with an entire weekend of Zinfandel events, from a large food and wine pairing event, to winemaker dinners, seminars, and, of course, the grand public tasting. I'm usually too busy to make it to most of the events, but I always try to make it to the public tasting in order to check in on most of California's top producers of Zinfandel and see how the past couple vintages are sorting out. 2006 seems like a fairly solid vintage, and those who got good fruit in 2005 and knew what they were doing made good wine, but on the whole, '05 seems weaker to me than 06. Neither, in my opinion was spectacular, but that doesn't mean there aren't some excellent wines out there. Perhaps it was just my palate that day, but it seems like most people are dialing back the wines from the utterly explosive, super-ripe fruit that characterized 2002 and 2003 vintages in my memory. That's not to say there weren't some wines clocking in at sometimes more than 16% alcohol, but there were a lot more balanced wines than I seem to remember tasting in the last few years. As many of you know, when I attend these large events, my goal is to taste a lot of wines in order to comparatively score them, rather than making tasting notes about each wine. I educate my palate in the process, and provide (I hope) some guidance for those who are looking to find roses among the thorns, or at least a great wine or two. Those who know my tasting regimen at these events will notice that I took it a little easy this year and only tasted about 150 wines. Enjoy. Click here for more details.