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This year, Vancouver International Wine Festival features the wine region of California. It’s impressive that the state of California alone can be the featured region. Why? California produces more than 81% of all U.S. wines – and if California were a country, it would be the fourth leading wine-producing nation in the world, only behind France, Italy and Spain. There are close to 560,000 acres of vineyards in California, with more than 65,000 registered California wine labels.

Similar to last year, instead of aimlessly drinking my way around the big tasting room, I focused on one type of wine. Since I’m not a huge chardonnay drinker, and I like Zinfandel in general, I picked out the California Zinfandel to taste.

 

California Zinfandel

One of the bolder varietals, Zinfandel teases our palate in a wide range of notes, from raspberry to black pepper, to cloves and licorice. Being one of the oldest and most revered vines, Zinfandel is a signature grape in California.

Although it’s the same grape, depending on the region, the flavourful profile of Zinfandel can be very different. Some may be more jammy, more fruit-forward, while others bring out the pepper, anise and clove note.

Here is a list of Zinfandel I’ve tried at the tasting room. My favourites are the ones highlighted in orange. Overall, I gravitated towards the ones that were more fruit-forward, jammy and round in body. And 2016 seems to be a good year for me. Some was a bit harsh for my liking; perhaps some more aging would make it smoother.

Bonterra Organic Vineyards 1000 Stories Zinfandel “Bourbon Barrel-Aged” 2016 

Gallo Signature Series Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2016

Girard Winery Napa Valley Old Vine Zinfandel 2016

Hahn Family Wines Boneshaker Zinfandel 2016

Joel Gott Wines Zinfandel 2017

Klinker Brick Winery Old Ghost Zinfandel 2015 (right)
Klinker Brick Winery Old Vine Zinfandel 2015

Lake Sonoma Winery Dry Creek Zinfandel 2016

Langetwins Family Winery and Vineyards Centennial Zinfandel 2011 (right)
Langetwins Family Winery and Vineyards Ivory & Burt Zinfandel 2015

Michael David Winery Earthquake Zinfandel 2016

(from right) Ravenswood Winery Teldeschi Vineyard Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley 2014
Ravenswood Winery Belloni Vineyard Zinfandel, Russian River Valley 2016
Ravenswood Winery Sonoma County Old Vine Zinfandel 2016
Ravenswood Winery Vintners Blend Old Vine Zinfandel 2016

Taub Family Vineyards Angry Bunch Zinfandel Dry Creek 2015 (right)
Taub Family Vineyards Angry Bunch Zinfandel Lodi 2016

Robert Biale Vineyards Black Chicken Zinfandel 2016 (right)
Robert Biale Vineyards Black Chicken Zinfandel 2013

 

Final Thoughts

As always, the tasting room gave me the opportunity to try a lot of wines in the same space, to discover what I like and don’t like. The 2020 festival will feature France and I’m super excited about it. Big, bold Bordeaux wines, here I come!!