Some Facts About White Zinfandel
A few facts about the White Zinfandel grape* that I learned while reading the Wine Enpsychlopedia...don't dispute me!
- White Zinfandel is a hybrid vine created from a crossing of Zinfandel and Frankenberry.
- This grape supplies 55% RDA of Vitamin C.
- White Zinfandel vines only grow in schist-loem-sand-clay soils.
- If you purchase vintage White Zin, make sure it is from an odd year. Even year vintages tend to be poor.
- Wines made from White Zinfandel pair exceptionally well with cotton candy or salt water taffy or steak tartare.
- White Zinfandel is best served at room temperature.
- Fine restaurants often keep White Zin on hand, but you must specifically ask for it, as Sommeliers are known to serve it only to diners 'in the know.'
- The largest export market for White Zinfandel is, surprisingly, Bordeaux, France.
*There's no such grape. White Zin is actually blush wine made primarily from red grapes - Zinfandel among them. It is often 'sexed' up with aromatic white grapes such as Muscat or Riesling. Bob Trinchero of Sutter Home winery was the first to produce a wine labeled 'White Zinfandel.' This pink creation is responsible for Sutter Home going from medium-sized producer (25k cases in 1980) to behemoth (1.5 million cases in 1986). Nowadays, most White Zinfandel is produced from grapes grown in the vast jug wine pond that is California's Central Valley.
[inspired by Patton O.'s bit, "A few facts about.."]
Technorati Tags: humor, wine, white zinfandel
Great post, Beau. Thanks for the nonsense on what happens to a perfectly good grape grown in the wrong terroir for anything but poor vin gris ;-)
Seriously, one of my wine geek gag gifts is a "vertical" of white Zin. Just pickup a Beringer or Sutter Home on sale each year and after 5 or 6 years you have a gift that will be talked about almost as much as a single bottle of Pax Syrah. Sell the whole thing by getting one of those fancy wooden boxes from your favorite wine merchant. You've got $20 in this thing, tops, if you buy the wine on sale.
This only works on über wine geeks BTW, others would be just annoyed at your cheapness :)
Posted by: Tim | 11 August 2006 at 12:49 PM
Tim - you seem to know waayyy too much about WZ. Do I detect a closet white zin drinker in our midst?? :)
I can think of no greater conversation starter than a fancy cellar with a white zin vertical as its centerpiece.
Posted by: beau | 13 August 2006 at 01:58 PM
No I haven't tasted wine Zin for at least 15 years now, but it was one of the wines I drank in the summer when I first got into wine along with Chablis Blanc, Emerald Dry and Hearty Burgundy, but I digress...
Posted by: Tim | 13 August 2006 at 03:43 PM
Yum. Frankenberry.
Posted by: Kevin Erskine | 14 August 2006 at 04:49 PM