ORIGINAL ZINFANDEL

Not white, not pink, but red Zinfandels from California

JOEL L. FLEISHMAN

Wine

If you mention Zinfandel, odds are it brings to mind a pleasant, distinctly unpretentious pink or off-white sipping wine. No one has ever described such wine as "great," although that has not prevented American consumers from quaffing it with such gusto as to handsomely enrich the White Zinfandel pioneers at Sutter Home Winery. Their creation, now widely copied by other wineries, is achieved simply by extracting the juice of the Zinfandel grape and fermenting it with little or no contact with the grape skins. (The color of a red wine comes from the skins during vinification.)

Because of White Zinfandel's popularity, people are becoming interested in the serious, authentic, red version, in spite of the fact that young red Zinfandel is not an easy-to-love wine. It is strong medicine, even medicinal, to most palates.

We recently compared sixty-one Zinfandels, all from vintages within the past ten years, in a blind tasting. The wines were tasted three times—one, ten, and eighteen hours after opening. Some of them were uncommonly good, while others, alas, proved so tannic that it was impossible to discern whether any fruit at all lay beyond their chalky, frequently bitter veil. The very best wines were made from grapes grown in Sonoma County. Alcohol percentages are given for each.

Five wineries produced extraordinary wines. Ravenswood's 1982 Dickerson Vineyard ($16; 14.2 percent) was easily the overall best in the tasting, with an intense, majestic violet bouquet and the texture of velvet. Its dazzlingly lush blackberry and raspberry essences with contrasting sweet and mildly bitter flavors make it a masterpiece of complexity. Moreover, unlike many of the other wines, which grew more tannic as they aired, this one became even more striking on retasting.

So close behind that the difference is hardly worth mentioning was the 1984 Grgich Hills Sonoma ($17; 13.7 percent), a chewy, textured wine of rich, pungent blackberry flavors. Its fruit is not as massive or intense as that of the Ravens wood, but its sweet flavors are so open and forward that it is a sheer joy to drink now, even if not likely ever to achieve Ravenswood's grandeur.

Hop Kiln's 1986 Russian River Valley ($10; 14.5 percent) is visually striking with its dark ruby color, and fills the mouth with briar, dusty violets, mild anise, and eucalyptus. It is a peppery wine, too, with adequate but not excessive tannins. Less tannic and therefore more easily accessible is the 1985 Joseph Phelps Alexander Valley ($15; 13 percent). Its nose of deep, pungent cherries and licorice is followed by a smokiness on the palate. It overflows with ripe blackberries edged by anise, and has a finish that is mildly peppery. Lytton Springs' 1987 Sonoma ($12; 14.4 percent), a deep, dense purple in color, is stunning. Like the Ravenswood Dickerson, it has massive fruit flavors that one can enjoy early because the tannins are not obtrusive. Its nose is spicy, and it has a long, dry finish.

Ten of the other wines were also appealing. Kendall-Jackson's 1986 DePatie-DuPratt Vineyard ($15; 13 percent) from Mendocino County has a peppery nose of black cherries, with a mouthful of pungent cherries, violets, and mild tobacco. Hop Kiln's 1985 Primitivo Reserve ($12; 14.5 percent) has a nose of deep grape, followed by intense and spicy, almost medicinal blackberry mouth flavors. The 1986 De Loach ($9; 13.8 percent) smells and tastes of pungent blackberries, with a firm edge of tobacco, eucalyptus, and tannins. Mark West's 1985 ($14; 13.8 percent) is full of complex, smoky blackberries and eucalyptus. Joseph Phelps's 1987 Alexander Valley ($17; 13.6 percent) starts with a forward nose of deep, powerful raspberries, and ascends to soft, silky blackberry, green-pepper, and tobacco flavors in the mouth, ending with the cleanest of finishes. The 1987 Nalle Dry Creek Valley ($12; 13.6 percent) is full of thick, but not sweet, blackberries, made more complex by briar and tobacco. Perhaps the best buy in the tasting was Rosenblum Cellars' nonvintage California Vintners Cuvee ($8; 13.2 percent). It has a deep, powerful blackberry and raspberry nose, and rich mouth flavors of raspberries darkened by tobacco, with a long, dry finish edged with green pepper. Rosenblum Cellars' 1987 Sonoma ($12; 13.4 percent) is a wine of better breeding and is more expensive. Its bouquet is of vigorous strawberry and grape, and in the mouth it is full of silky raspberries framed by tobacco and green pepper.

Ridge Vineyard's 1986 Paso Robles ($10; 13.2 percent) is impressive with its forward nose of grape essences and a gorgeous, dry, spicy, complex mouth of blackberries, followed by what can only be called a tingling finish. The 1986 Buehler Napa ($9; 13 percent) has everything a Zinfandel is supposed to have. It is intense, with strong blackberry, spice, briar, and tobacco flavors.