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01.27.2007

The Flu That Ate My ZAP Coverage

Those of you who have gotten used to my usual coverage of the ZAP Zinfandel Tasting each year will have to temporarily look elsewhere. While thousands of wine lovers are busy tasting through the latest vintages of Zinfandel here in San Francis.co, I'm home wrapped in a fleece blanket coughing and shivering. I came down with something on Tuesday that has hit me like a ton of bricks and is doggedly persistent against my usual regimen of sleep, zinc, vitamin C, and fluids.

A fellow wine writer suggested that he had found Argentine Malbec could cut through the congestion and made a good germ killer, but tasting wine seems one of the least appealing things I could do right now. I'm lucky to keep down some chicken soup.

Anyhow, this isn't a big sympathy play, it's just a note to those few of you who look forward to scores on hundreds of Zinfandels at the end of the weekend. Sorry to disappoint. Rumor has it that the event courted bloggers big-time this year, so there will be plenty of other coverage.

Posted by: Alder on January 27, 2007 3:53 PM: Filed under: Ramblings and Rants; Like this post? Share it! Digg it! - Add to del.icio.us - Add to Stumbleupon - Add to Reddit

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Comments (15)

Sonadora wrote:

01.27.07 at 5:44 PM

Feel better! Sorry you had to miss the Zinfandel event, it sounded great...wish I could have gone!

Doug wrote:

01.27.07 at 6:50 PM

We missed you too Alder... get well.

Rick wrote:

01.28.07 at 10:48 AM

This actually makes me feel better. One of the main reasons I wanted to go was to meet you during the press time there, but I was unable to attend thanks to family stuff, so now I don't feel so bad! ;)

I did get to go to the Flights event on Wednesday and it was absolutely stellar, I'll definitely be a regular at that one.

Mike Iannuccillo wrote:

01.28.07 at 3:08 PM

some of my favorites from yesterday's ZAP tasting:

1. Woodenhead 2004 'Braccalini' vinyard - this one was special and my favorite of the day - very complex for a zin - layers of flavor and very Rhone like

2. Storrs - blue label - Old Vine Lion Oaks 2004

3. Downing Family Fly by Night 2005 - best so far and all past years were good

4. Mantra Old Vine Reserve 2005

5. Michael-David 'Lust'

6. Turley 2005 barrel sample

7. Chiarello 'Felicia' vineyard

8. Ballentine Block 9

9. D-Cubed

10. Brown Estate

11. Crauford 2005 barrel sample

12. Carlisle 'Tom Feeny Ranch'

Alder wrote:

01.28.07 at 3:38 PM

Mike,

Thanks for the comments. Several of those are among my perrenial favorites. I've been singing the praises of Woodenhead for a long time. Nick and Zena make great stuff.

bob.hall wrote:

01.28.07 at 7:51 PM

I went to my first ZAP zinfidel tasting. Fortunately, I stumbled upon your tasting notes from last year's event. Thanks so much for your recommendations. I would have been lost and wandering aimlessly without them. I hope you're feeling better.

Brian Miller wrote:

01.28.07 at 10:25 PM

The Felicia is quite good, isn't it? I tasted it at Vintner's Collective in Napa. A little pricey, though ($50)

Nicole wrote:

01.29.07 at 2:31 AM

Mmm, Woodenhead Zin. The shop/importer I work for here in London carries Woodenhead and the wines are always stellar. Wish I could have been at ZAP!

As for the flu, Alder, hope you are on your way to recovery. I agree that tasting wine is the last thing you feel compelled to do when suffering through that miserable bug. Each of my colleagues had a different suggestion for which wine/spirit I should be drinking to rid myself of the pain when I had the flu at Christmas. No thanks! Feel better soon.

Mike Iannuccillo wrote:

01.29.07 at 9:11 AM

it will be good to see if the community here posts up other recommendations for favorites

I didn't spit the entire time, so I couldn't try as many wines as I'd have liked and went for the known good producers and a few others that fellow tasters recommended. 3 hours was not enough time to go through 300 producers.

Alder, you might want to move this up to the top so readers will see it on Monday morning and add names to the list of favorites

get well

Jack wrote:

01.29.07 at 1:56 PM

My favorites!

Woddenhead rocked
Sextant was thouroughly tough to beat
Nightwatch is on Zap Watch!
Peachy had a special Esspecial and snowden
Ridge had their Dusi showing off spectacularly
Carlile & Brown estates handled untamed Zin beasts at their tables, Very crowded, but still very worth it. Definetly better to hit up the small hanger early in the day.

This is just the best of what I saw. i will look @ my notes later.

Dan G Erken wrote:

02.05.07 at 11:50 AM

Can anyone provide me with a lead on where I could buy some Woodenville without having to order from the very distant New Jersey. (I'm in Southern Calif.)

Mike, I like Tom Feeney Ranch. It seems to produce zin with spice the way I like it. One of my all time favorite zins (now past its prime, I think) was the 2001 Starry Night, Tom Feeney Ranch, Russian River Valley, Old Vines. I nursed two cases of that over three years' time, until it was gone.

Dan G Erken wrote:

02.05.07 at 12:19 PM

I meant Woodenhead, not Woodenville. Thanks

Alder wrote:

02.05.07 at 1:47 PM

Dan,

Best thing to do would be to call Nikolai and get him to ship to you. His contact info is on their web site: http://www.woodenheadwine.com/

Sean wrote:

02.06.07 at 12:26 PM

Man, too bad you couldn't make it.. We went and took a tonne of notes: http://www.moreisless.ca/?p=327

Hope to see you there next year!

Cheers,
Sean