Viva! ZAP's 16th Annual Zinfandel Festival

Speak easy and carry a big stick (a sourdough baguette that is).  The Zinfandel was pouring freely, baguettes abounded, a moon full of cheese was consumed, and the sun even peered out for this annual Bay area festival of red.

Chris Lynch of Mutt Lynch Winery pours his Portrait of a Mutt. 

Hundreds turned out for the 16th annual ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates and Producers) Zinfandel Tasting on Saturday at Fort Mason in San Francisco.  And that was just the Trade and Media session from 10 AM to 1 PM. A larger public was queued up for their session as we left the buildings.

This was my first trip to ZAP and my first time to cross the Golden Gate Bridge since the mid-1980s. I spent the first 150 minutes of the tasting without a glass in my hand, sizing up the big event with my lens and trying to maintain a clear head. Only in the last half hour did I grab my glass and taste a few excellent values.

Most everyone else went right to the business of tasting, leaving me in the gustatory dust. Suffice it to say that Zinfandel "freaks" are a happy lot, unencumbered by rules and sporting good humor in addition to an infinite capacity for enjoying good Zin.

Look for more thoughts on this event forthright; meanwhile my West Coast trip has already taken me across the Golden Gate Bridge to points north, as I'm now headed for Oregon's Pinot Noir country and Walla Walla Washington before the next week gets away.

Golden Gate Bridge January 27, 2006

You can view my photo album of the ZAP Zinfandel Tasting now on Winewaves.

Comments

[Sonadora]

Great picture of the bridge! Thanks for sharing.