Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

Why You Should Give White Zinfandel a Chance (Again)

By
white zinfandel wine
Mark Swallow/Getty Images

For a lot of Americans, White Zinfandel serves as their first foray into fermented fruit. In wine circles, it’s the ultimate punching bag. Polarizing as it may be, it’s enjoying a little bit of a comeback.

You’ve seen the bottles, outfitted with a white label with pink trim and filled with blush-hued juice. Sutter Home claims to have invented the stuff in the 1970s. Undoubtedly, smaller producers here and abroad were at least experimenting with the style before that. But the California giant popularized the stuff, capitalizing on a bit of experimentation.

Recommended Videos

The first batch was produced in 1972, somewhere between knee socks and Ziggy Stardust. It was made from saignée juice, or, the stuff that is naturally pressed due to the weight of the grapes. The first couple of vintages proved to be tough sells, but when a particularly solid batch was turned out 1975, America began to salivate. White Zin has since become Sutter Home’s namesake.

Related

Why the White Zin vitriol? For some, it’s the simple nature of the wine. And wine, according to winos, is something to reflect on, not purchase at 7-Eleven and promptly pound (save that for cheap beer). For others, it’s probably the sweetness, giving it what some might dub an “amateur-ish” quality. Maybe it’s because the wine is mass-produced. Maybe it’s because it’s wildly popular. Traditionalists can’t stomach the thought of Zinfandel, a bold and established red, being treated like a white wine (don’t tell this group about White Pinot Noir).

Why do some adore it? Well, it’s a pretty color and goes down pretty easily. And in its defense, White Zin has probably introduced more Americans to wine than any other drink out there. As a gateway wine, it’s done a lot of favors for fellow winemakers and their brands. Besides, it’s rosé, one of the most reliable categories of wine around.

“The wineries that popularized this style were letting the grapes become overripe so they had to water down the juice as it was fermenting so the alcohol levels weren’t through the roof.”

In fairness, the original take is not very good. But neither is Coors Light or the McRib and look how they’re faring. But it can be good, as a new generation of vintners is finding out. California producers like End of Nowhere and Turley Cellars are trying to redefine White Zin, injecting a bit more in the way of flavor and detail into the wine.

Ian Atkins of Flat Brim Wines in Portland is among them. “White Zin in particular had a reputation of being a sugary mess but that was really just a poor approach to making it,” he says. “The wineries that popularized this style were letting the grapes become overripe so they had to water down the juice as it was fermenting so the alcohol levels weren’t through the roof.”

Atkins appreciates Zinfandel’s fruity and spicy traits but knows he’s working with a style that doesn’t have the best reputation. “I labeled it White Zinfandel as a way to get the conversation started [among] wine consumers,” he adds. “And as a winemaker, I’m inspired by the ’70s California wine industry. It’s been very successful for me and I think this new generation of very educated wine drinkers enjoys the taboo of drinking White Zin.”

White Zin remains a relatively inexpensive bottle you’re more than welcome to enjoy in a brown bag or as the last wine of the evening at a hazy backyard party. But it can also be improved with a little more TLC in the cellar. Then, it begins to behave like its more celebrated cousins, showing freshness, vigorous acidity, vivid fruit flavors, even a touch of smoke and spice.

If Merlot is on the rebound, why not another Golden State icon?

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Mark Stock
Mark Stock
Contributor
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
This is the easiest way to purify bacon grease, which you should be saving for all kinds of cooking projects
Bacon grease looks gross, but it will elevate your cooking
Bacon frying

Cooks - be they home cooks or professional chefs - usually fall into one of two categories. Those who fill their plates with an abundance of colorfully nutritious foods, always taking care to use healthier cooking methods and ingredients. And those who cook with bacon fat. We aren't saying these two paths can't cross, but chances are, if you - like us - have a big batch of bacon grease in your refrigerator right now, you love a good, old-fashioned, to-hell-with-calorie-counting kind of dish. This tip is for you.

If you didn't grow up with a jar of bacon grease in your childhood refrigerator, first of all - our condolences. But you may also be wondering what the hell we're talking about. Bacon grease is the fatty liquid that cooks off when bacon is fried or baked. It is also one of the most wonderful cooking ingredients on earth and one you should start saving immediately.

Read more
Brunch vomiting: San Francisco restaurants are fining customers for this gross habit, and every city should do the same
Bottomless mimosas are great, but not holding your liquor isn't
brunch vomiting fines in san francisco kelly sikkema agjdd hgfpw unsplash

It may very well be that until now, brunch was the last nice thing. It's the one meal that remains untouched and cheapened by paper napkins and obnoxiously fluorescent drive-thru menus. It's the one meal where people still dare to dress for the occasion in pretty florals and sophisticated neckwear. If guests are invited for brunch, it's more than likely to be an occasion with soft linens and sparkling china. Yes, we've been good to brunch. And brunch has returned the favor, magically turning day drinking into something sophisticated instead of tacky. But, as it goes, all good things must come to an end. And it would appear that time is now. At least in San Francisco restaurants.

Of course, not being able to hold one's alcohol isn't a new development, but it's always carried with it a good level of deserved embarrassment and secrecy. Now, we certainly aren't here to judge, and overindulgence is something that's gotten the better of all of us more than a handful of times, to be sure. But when public vomiting is a brunch behavior that's become so normalized that restaurants are making rules around this one specific issue, we, as a society, have a problem.

Read more
This is the reason why France is going to destroy 80 million gallons of wine
It's heartbreaking, but it's probably the best way to avoid a catastrophe.
Wine bottles

While we here at The Manual love our wines from all across the globe, there is something particularly magical about French varietals. Grapes that grow directly from the soil belonging to the most romantic and passionate of countries have a charm that's uniquely mysterious and beautiful. French wines are adored not just because of their often exquisite and unparalleled notes but because opening a bottle can send you - even just for a moment - to one of the most enchanting places on earth. So if you, like us, find yourself on the more romantic side of wine appreciation, you may find this article difficult to swallow.

France is about to destroy 80 million gallons of French wine. That's enough to fill more than 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Not only that, but the country is spending about $216 million (USD) to do it. As berserk as this sounds, unfortunately, it seems to be the most rational thing to do.

Read more