Zinfandel advice?

Depends upon where you live.

Turley Wine Cellars Ridge Buchignani Vineyard Peachy Canyon

others too...don't know whats available where you are.

I probaby don't drink as much Zin as some others around here (Mark L. , Hunt, Ed R, etc) but the 3 producers I always come back to are Ridge, Biale, and Dashe. Ridge is on top of the list of "usual suspects," and therefore the most likely to be brought by someone else. Biale makes big Zins, but balanced in my opinion (I usually buy the Crane Ranch). Dashe makes more subdued/elegant wines, maybe wouldn't stand out as much.

I prefer big bold up front fruit Zins. They're not for those that do not like huge reds. Some of my favorites are:

Try their Brown Zinfandel. Small winery, great Zins.

Their Sobon Estate Zins are incredible.

Story Winery

Their Alitia Zinfandel is excellent as is their Picnic Hill Zin.

Their Warrior Fire Zin is tops for me. However, their better rated Bucks Ten Point is often preferred by some.

For some fun try

Their 7 deadly Zins runs about $10 at Costco. It's a great wine to do blind tastings against the more expensive Zins. It easily holds its own and suprises many.

I have been a big fan of Peachy Canyon Zins. They have quite a few. My favorites have been their eastside and westside Zins. Their 2002 releases were not nearly up to par as earlier years. I have not had anything later.

You may be interested to know that Puglia, Italy, produces a lot of wine under the name Primitivo that is supposed to be the same grape.

In addition to the excellent suggestions you've already received, I'll add a few more names:

Cline's Bridgehead or Big Break Zins Seghesio's Cortina Zin Rosenblum's Eagle Point Zin Zoom

I'll also strongly second Dale's recommendation of Robert Biale Zins, though at your price point only his Napa Ranches bottling will be available.

Have fun, and let us know how it all goes! Mark Lipton

Thanks to everyone who responded. We'll pick from your suggestions, let you know which one we chose, tell you what everyone else brought, and which one everyone liked best and why.

Lots of good suggestions so far, I'll offer a slightly different approach and suggest you look into some Amador County winery Zinfandels.

Those include the more obvious; Sobon (Rocky Top, Fiddletown, and Old Vine), Shenandoah Special Reserve, Amador Cellars, Montevina (Terra D'Oro), etc. to the less known - but extraordinary; Cooper's (the '04 "due cugini") is priced a little over $20 and is excellent.

Similar but DNA tests have been done to show they are not identical. There are unique differences between the two. Primitivo is not as popular in Italy as Zinfandel is in the USA. Here in the USA Italian Primitivo selection is poor but I have had a few that were very nice.

I forgot about Seghesio. It is an excellent Zin and very consistant from year to year. Always have it in my collection. One of my favorites.

There is one Primotiivo that I like a lot, the name of which escapes me at the moment.

US Zins are generally quite a bit different style than Italian Primotivo. In the US Zins are much bigger, upfront fruit with strong pepper. Usually higher alcohol content as well.

How many Primitivos have you had? I'll check later on the one that I like. It sells for about $16 in Ohio.

1/2 dozen different selections but I can't remember which ones. I don't drink them often enough to remember. I have also had California Primotivo from a couple Italian owned and operated wineries. Was told they bought the stocks over from Italy. I don't remember which wineries they were but they were in the Santa Barbara region.

There's an interesting article on this on wikipedia, which does not seem to agree with this. Maybe it is just a question of degree - how different do 2 sets of DNA have to be to define another variety rather than 2 clones of the same variety?

If you have more uptodate, detailed or accurate info, go ahead and edit the aticle.

Terroir and clonal differences, I believe, but they're proven to be the same grape. The few Primitivos I've had are only vaguely zin-like, though.

Dana

I can't find the more recent studies done but it is my understanding that the California Zinfandel is closer to the Croatian grape Crljenak Kastelanski. Theres also something in climate etc. that has caused the Zinfandel grape clusters to be much larger than the Croatian grapes.

I think you're correct but from what I have read the Zinfandel did not come to the USA from Italy but rather from Croatia.

The producer is Carparelli, Primitivo Tarantino Rosso is the IGT name.