Zinfandel, Who Knew?

Attendees were greeted with a mountain of fresh baked bread when they first entered. I guess the festival organizers wanted the make sure people have something in the stomachs to soak up all that wine.

If you told a winemaker 20 years ago that wine made from the less than noble Zinfandel grape would be as popular as it is today, I think that they would look at you as if you had two heads. Zinfandel was just this strange varietal that had been planted in California long ago but was never taken as seriously as Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon. Fast forward to last Saturday, January 31, 2009 and the 18th annual Zinfandel Festival at Fort Mason in San Francisco. The Festival, which is organized by the Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP), is one of the most popular and well attended wine tastings of its kind. What makes it truly remarkable is that it is dedicated to ONE varietal. That’s hundreds of producers pouring nothing but Zinfandel. And people go ga-ga over it. I have attended the festival on-and-off for the past ten years, and am still amazed at how packed it becomes.

This year was a little special for me. I did not attend as a vendor, forced to pour the same wine for hours on end, nor as a consumer elbowing my way to get a splash of the precious red nectar. I attended as a blogger. Now, ZAP is notorious for being stingy with their trade and media passes. So it says something about the growing influence of wine blogs that I was able to get in on a media credential.

The festival was packed as usual. This was actually BEFORE all the consumers arrived.

So, how was this possible? Well, in large part, it is thanks to Adbi Humphries, Smoke Wallin, and Cornelius Geary of Wine 2.0. They came up with the brilliant idea of hosting a Bloggers Lounge at the festival. In both pavilions (yes, there were two), they had set aside an area for bloggers to congregate, complete with tables, chairs, and wi-fi access. I took full advantage of the area, as well as the media section which had many of the wines set aside on multiple tables to taste at our leisure. Quite nice since we didn’t have to use our elbows as stated above.

It was great re-connecting with some of the bloggers I’ve met through Twitter and the Wine Bloggers Conference. Ward Kadel (aka DrXeNo) of Wine Log Blog actually blogged live from the floor, while Thea (aka sfwinebrat) of LuciousLushes’s Blog, Ashley (aka The Beer Wench) of Drink with the Wench, Shana of shana; not out on VHS yet, Robbin of Vineyard Adventures, Sean of Vinifico, Lisa from Adams Walter Communications and Sonoma personality Daedalus Howell could all be seen in attendence. And that is just the folks that I knew and/or saw.

So, what was it like? Despite the fact that I had been to ZAP on other occasions, I have never tasted so many Zinfandels at one time. Even though each one definitely had its own character, I think I can safely say that I know what Zinfandel tastes like now (not that I didn’t before). In the end, my teeth were purple (or grey, depending on your perspective), my notebook full, and my spirit light. I can’t wait for next year.

Tags: Bloggers, blogging, wine 2.0, ZAP, Zinfandel