July 4th Bad Boy

The 4^th of July is a time to celebrate and in America we do that by drinking what we damn well please. The 2015 Freelance Wines Coup de Grace Proprietary Red Blend is one wine to consider. Never mind the fact that none other than George Washington is on the label, this wine unites different grapes – e pluribus unum - out of many, one…wine! From Lodi, this is comprised of Old Vine Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc, Petite Sirah and Petite Verdot.

Much like the founding fathers of this country, this is a big boy, bold brash, in your face kind of wine, one that is not shy, but happy to announce itself. There’s tons of blackberry cobbler, blueberry compote, raspberry and plum with back notes of tobacco, licorice. It’s been barrel aged for just over a year and a half. It’s thick and viscous, like a oil coating your throat with jammy, ripe fruit and unashamed to be a crowd pleasing wine. $29.99

Getting Zapped. Zinfandel. The Experience.

Flights of older & newer Zins

Zinfandel is considered “America’s grape” because it was widely planted when the California wine industry began to grow in the mid to late 1850s, but it is not, however, a truly American grape; it’s an immigrant – it originally came from Europe. Though heavily planted in California, you see far too many iterations that are all jammy fruit and sweetness. Nothing wrong with that, but Zinfandel can also be elegant, structured, earthy and subtle; a wine of diversity breaking away from typical Cabernet/Merlot flavors, and nothing like Syrah at all. But most people’s perception is Zin as a pizza and burger wine. Oh, the horror. Yes, I’m a ZinFan. And any ZinFan should really attend the annual ZinEx - the Zinfandel Experience - in San Francisco, as I did in February 2017 to get a well rounded, truly authentic look (and taste) into how diverse and exceptional Zinfandel can be.

Dedicated Zinfandel fans

ZinEx is like most multi-day festivals; there are special “flight” tastings with older vintages (I had some 2002, 2004, 2007 vintages), winemaker dinners, an evening auction, and grand tasting. But what sets this apart is the near fanatical nature of Zinfandel fans. You don’t really get this from Cabernet or Pinot - sure there are die-hards – but Zinfandel excites a primal sense in wine lovers; there’s something nearly visceral, emotional and instinctual. During ZinEx there were events at the terrific One Market Restaurant (including some of the best calamari I’ve had outside of Crete), the Bentley Reserve (formerly the San Francisco Federal reserve bank) not to mention the Grand Tasting held at Pier 27 overlooking the San Francisco Bay, which saw more than 1,500 attendees. Over the course of that day, over 20,000 appetizers from 18 artisan purveyors and chefs were available – of which I had maybe five or six, which reminds me to eat more next year. Rounding out the afternoon were more than 600 different Zinfandels poured from California growing regions and appellations from diverse places including Mendocino, Redwood Valley, Lake County, Napa, Sonoma, El Dorado, Amador County, Shenandoah Valley, Calaveras County, Lodi, Contra Costa, Livermore, Paso Robles, and as far south as Cucamonga. So if you are addicted to Zinfandel, or if Zinfandel is still something of a mystery, a visit to ZinEx will open your mind and your palate to California’s First Grape, so do check it out. www.ZinfandelExperience.com

My Top Zinfandel Finds at ZinEx/2017

NV Lava Cap River Red (Zin blend), $18

2013 Steele Old Vine Mendocino County, $19

2014 The Federalist, Bourbon Barrel Aged, $25

2015 Day Zinfandel Sonoma Coast $30 

2014 Dashe Cellars Todd Brothers Old Vine, $35

Terra d‘Oro 10 Year Tawny Port, $50

2014 Miraflores Trilegato, $55

Far From the Madding Crowds: New Book Explores Wines' Crushing Reality

There’s a perpetual myth that being a winemaker is sexy, cool, and that all a winemaker really does is jet off to exotic locations to eat and drink with people who are impossible tanned, flush with cash and orbit in the highest echelons of society. Seriously, if that’s the case I’ll quite wine writing and start wine making. The reality is that making wine is farming, it’s cleaning up crap, putting out fires (sometimes literally) and hoping you make the correct decisions because you can’t go back and fix a wine once you’ve screwed it up – and you only get one chance each year. In Chris Weir’s new book, The Mad Crush, he details one specific vintage at a small winery, Saucelito Canyon, located in the upper Arroyo Grande Valley in San Luis Obispo County. If you haven’t heard of it you’re in good company as their story is somewhat typical of the majority of wineries in the U.S. – that is to say, small, under the radar family operations struggling with a shoestring budget. Compound that with where Saucelito Canyon is located - in the middle of nowhere (I’m not kidding) - that they ran off generators and that the vineyard was 115 years old when Weir was working that harvest.

The historic vineyard

Weir reflects on the 1995 vintage, its shortcoming, problems, amusements and its final wine. I have a soft spot for Saucelito Canyon and have been to the property many times, though it’s not open to the public except for once each year.

#1: This is truly a historic vineyard, with own-rooted Zinfandel vines planted in 1880, and there are very few of these old vineyards still around.

#2: This was one of the very first places a young wine writer (me) ever visited and realized the breadth, depth and complexity of wine.

#3 – This is where I got engaged to my wife. I could wax poetic about the spiritual ambience I feel about this property, but Weir mixes both the sentiment of the place and the unsexy reality of out of date winemaking equipment quite well. “In loftier moments you could call winemaking an art,” he writes. “Practically speaking it’s a craft. But toward the end of the crush, there’s little time or energy left for elegant thoughts. Your brain is foggy, your spine aches, your hands are scored and stained red, and shit just needs to get done.” Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. This is an easy read, a fun read, and one that will set you straight on the glorious and grunt-laden world of winemaking.

Me and the Mrs. at the vineyard, May/2015

The Mad Crush

by Sean Christopher Weir

158 pages, 15 photos

$11.95 Paperback, $9.95 Ebook

www.TheMadCrush.com