which zinfandel

Dmitri,

I've not had the Pepperwood Zin in some time, and I think they might have acquired by someone else, since I last tasted it. For the cost, it was a pretty good Zin, as I recall. As my usual additional Zin at about the same price point, is the Ravenswood VB Zin, I won't bother recommending it ;-} I'm curious, however, what aspects you did not like in that wine.

At about the same range, Peachy Canyon's Incredible Red (Zin based blend of varietals) is always flavorful and I feel offers a good value wine. I usually put in a case of it and the Ravenswood, to be used as cooking/light drinking Zins and find that about 6mo softens and rounds out the Peachy.

For special meals, you might want to look up the price ladder a bit and try some of the Ridge Zins, plus both Peachy & Ravenswood offer quite a few additional wines, but not at that price point.

Rosenblum has a Cuvee that is only a few $ more, and a fine wine. They also offer a dozen, or so more Zins, all of which I enjoy and find to be good values, though more expensive that the Pepperwood.

One good thing, is that Zins are quite nicely priced, until you get into the Biales and Turleys. By the time you are up to about US$20/btl. there is a " world" of excellent Zins and only one's individual tastes can choose from amongst them.

Hunt

I like Ernest & Julio Gallo Café Zinfandel. You might want to try White Zinfandel.

The Bogle Old Vine Zinfandel is lovely, I tried the 2001 vintage in May this year and it was top notch. (BogleWinery.com)

Price-wise, it's £9.95 a bottle here in the UK. (Roughly $18 at current exchange rates, I'm guessing it's somewhat cheaper than that in the states though).

James. P.S. I'm new to this group, so hi everyone!

Hello James,

While I'm familiar with Bogle, I have not tried their Old Vines Zin. It appears that it uses Amador County fruit, and there is certainly some good Zin grapes coming from that part of CA. I'll check it out in the States and see what price point it is, as well as compare it to some of the Zins I had mentioned.

Welcome, Hunt

It can be found for between eight and ten USD. It's great stuff, although at the price I prefer Ravenswood's VB or Rosenblum's NV stuff. Cline offers a few wines in this range that are quite good, as well.

• Some of the best zins come from Ridge Vineyards -- these are the guys who put zin on the map as a varietal way back in the '60s. Before that, zin was a blending wine like carignane, etc.

Ridge has about eight or ten zins -- try one of their Sonoma County middling price wines -- probably $12 or so.

earle