It’s time for Zinfandel. Or perhaps it would better be said: it’s the Zinfandel time of year. While January is a quiet month in the vineyards of Northern California, it’s anything but quiet in San Francisco, as lots of wine events come to town. None is quite as big nor as well known as the annual ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers) Festival.

The festival takes place over several days, and includes winemaker dinners, seminars, and smaller tastings, but the crown jewel and focus of the event is the public tasting which brings throngs (and that’s actually putting it mildly) of wine drinkers to taste for an afternoon at Fort Mason in San Francisco. It’s a bit of a madhouse, and it seems to get more popular every year, but there’s just no avoiding the fact that if you enjoy Zinfandel, there’s just no better place to taste what is available. I’ve covered the event several times here on Vinography, so you can check out last year’s coverage here, if you like.

This year’s events include a big seminar based tasting at City College, a food and wine “dine-around” meal where food and wine pairing stations are set up for wandering guests, and a winemaker dinner at the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental. For details and tickets on these events, check the ZAP festival web site.

The public and trade tasting will take place two weeks from today on Saturday, January 28th at Fort Mason. 10:00 to 1:00 for the trade, 1:30 to 5:00 for the public. I HIGHLY recommend purchasing tickets in advance, and I also highly recommend getting there early. By the time 1:30 or 2:00 rolls around, there is usually a long line to get in.

15th Annual Zinfandel Advocates & Producers Festival Tasting
January 28, 2006 1:30 – 5:00 PM
Fort Mason Center
99 Marina Boulevard (at Buchanan)
San Francisco, CA 94123
415-345-7575

Wear dark clothes you don’t mind getting spills on, wear comfortable shoes, come with a good lunch in your stomach, and SPIT!