Zinfandel is all-weather wine choice for July 4 celebrations

Should we be expecting warm, sunny weather for July Fourth? Maybe, but I can't help but recall the time some years ago when it was so bitterly cold in Seattle that we huddled in winter coats on my deck watching a fireworks show that mostly took place above thick, black clouds.

Well then, maybe it will be a cool Fourth? Ah, but last year, out on my porch in Waitsburg, Walla Walla County, the temperature that day had topped 112 degrees and was still in the mid-90s by the time the fireworks lit up the sky.

So, Mr. Wine Guy, what is the foolproof, all-weather, any-food, surefire celebration Fourth of July wine?

There is only one possible answer: zinfandel.

I have had a love affair with zinfandel for many years. Old as I am, I don't remember its heyday, back in the 1880s, when it was the most widely planted varietal in the country. I do remember the improbable and meteoric rise of the sweet, fruity white zinfandels that dominated zin sales a century later.

Zinfandel has since been reclaimed, rediscovered as the great red wine it truly can be. As Ravenswood's founder and winemaker Joel Peterson explains, "Zin doesn't really have any negative flavor characteristics. From early ripeness you get strawberries; then on to raspberries, cherries, blackberries, boysenberries and even darker fruits beyond that. In any particular location it adjusts itself and its flavor profiles quite remarkably."

Though wineries such as Ridge and Fetzer were making expansive lineups of single-vineyard zins as far back as the early 1970s, most wineries stuck with one or two styles. Some made zin as a dry rosé, some in a lighter Beaujolais style, while others aimed for a more serious, barrel-aged claret style. Occasionally a late-harvest zin would appear.

All of these styles exist today, and the number of zinfandel producers in California has climbed to more than 300. For your Fourth of July picnic, barbecue, rain dance or flood watch, you will want to grab a bottle or two that reflect the grape's core strengths — aromas of fresh berries, zesty fruit flavors, and spicy, brambly notes. New oak, where used, should be a seasoning, not a sauce.

Most important, though modern grape-growing and winemaking practices have pushed the alcohol levels in some zinfandels as high as 17 percent or more, there are still many good examples in a range of 14 to 15 percent. That's where you want to be.

Though zinfandel is grown and made all over California, Sonoma County (particularly Dry Creek) is the epicenter for many of the greatest examples. Wines labeled old vine, or that are produced from a single vineyard, are more expensive but usually offer more intriguing flavors.

Jerry Seps, who pioneered modern styles of zinfandel-making at Storybook Mountain Vineyards, points out that "we don't have a standard of what great zin should be. But I would argue that finesse, complexity, balance and structure — all the components of any great red wine — should be there, the exact same criteria."

Call it the elegance factor — it is something that the old vines in particular (loosely defined as those at least 50 years old) have in abundance. Old vines, notes Joel Peterson, are consistent year in and year out. They are better able to express the particular character of a specific vineyard site, no matter what the vintage conditions.

To which I would add, it is just flat-out fun to drink a wine from vines that may be 80, 90 or even 100 years old.

For years I wondered why Washington produced no zinfandel. Lemberger, which used to be promoted as Washington's zinfandel, is really not the same at all.

It was Sineann's Peter Rosback whose old-vine bottlings from The Pines Vineyard near Hood River, Ore., first alerted me to the possibilities for zinfandel in the Northwest. In just the past decade, Washington wineries such as Columbia, Forgeron Cellars, Maryhill, Michael Florentino, Thurston Wolfe, Trio Vintners and Zefina have jumped onto the zin bandwagon with increasing success.

This was borne out at Forgeron a few months ago, when I had the opportunity to taste the winery's first six vintages of zin, 2001 through 2006. All were expressive, varietal and in excellent condition. The most recent vintages are a mix of fruit from Alder Ridge, Clifton and Les Collines vineyards, representing three quite different Washington AVAs. Who says zin can't be grown here?!

A Case of

Recommended Zins

Castle Rock 2006 Zinfandel; $10 (Distributor: Elliott Bay)

Bogle 2006 Old Vine Zinfandel; $11 (Noble)

Trentadue 2005 Zinfandel; $15 (Vehrs)

Clos LaChance 2005 "Buff-Bellied" Zinfandel; $15 (Click)

Writer's Block Zinfandel; $15 (Unique)

DeLoach 2003 "Estate" Zinfandel; $16 (Noble)

Rodney Strong 2005 "Knotty Vines" Zinfandel; $18 (Odom)

Coppola 2006 "Director's Cut" Zinfandel; $18 (Young's-Columbia)

Shippey Vineyards "Rocking Z" Zinfandel; $20 (Unique)

Thurston Wolfe 2006 "Howling Wolfe" Zinfandel; $20

Roshambo "The Reverend" Zinfandel; $22 (Unique)

Forgeron 2005 or 2006 Zinfandel; $30 (Elliott Bay)

Paul Gregutt is the author of "Washington Wines and Wineries The Essential Guide." His column appears weekly in the Wine section. He can be reached by e-mail at wine@seattletimes.com.