To Discover The Magic Of Good Zinfandel, Ask This Winemaker

(Forbes) - Ravenswood winemaker Joel Peterson is the only vintner I know with a tombstone proudly displayed by the door of his tasting room. It’s a simple affair with the epitaph: To Err is Human, But to Zin is Divine, Here Lies The Last Wimpy Wine. I used to labor under the false impression that Peterson was praising bold, over-ripe fruit bombs over the schmaltzy bland stuff; boy was I wrong. Peterson’s symbolic tombstone gesture was meant as a farewell to the (hopefully) bygone days of simple, sugary, fruited-out zinfandel in exchange for more sophisticated, nuanced versions. As he says with a chuckle, “Good zinfandel is like a beautiful woman with a brain.”

Zinfandel and Joel Peterson are synonymous in California, in fact they’ve been together longer than most Hollywood couples. Back in 1972 Peterson was an outlier, a slightly rogue winemaker who pushed the limits of zinfandel. He tamed tannins, restored old, abandoned vineyards, and coaxed wines of elegance and beauty out of some of the ugliest, oldest, most fragile vines in the state of California. He did all of this, at one point moving his winemaking operation five times in five years, while the rest of us were slurping syrupy white zinfandel and listless chardonnay with childlike glee.

Most wine drinkers have tasted his vintner’s blend wines; they are go-to classics at a great price. But, to really taste the magic of zinfandel, you need to open one of Peterson’s single vineyard wines (Old Hill, Dickerson, Belloni, etc.). Indeed, winemakers throughout California (from Lodi to the Amador Foothills) are following Peterson’s lead and producing elegant, age-worthy zinfandels. Long-time producers such as Ridge and Seghesio also share a long history with the varietal. Curiously, zinfandel production is almost equal to that of cabernet sauvignon in California—but much of the zinfandel is used as a workhorse in kitchen sink red blends. A shame really, yet, there is hope. I asked Peterson via phone to talk about his relationship with zinfandel, what he sees next for this noble grape and why we should be aging it.

The wine world is changing. Now we are seeing a mode of pull back to a more claret-like style of zinfandel. That really couldn’t be better news. Zinfandel is a funny grape and no two zins are the same. All of my single vineyards are under 15% alcohol. Zin can age very well…but it has to be made with aging in mind.