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California

Generally speaking, I have an aversion to white zinfandel, which is frequently overly sweet, poorly made and cheap. When someone suggested that I try the Buehler Vineyards Napa Valley White Zinfandel, it gave me pause, but I held my nose and just went on and did it. The wine is remarkable. It has a great deal of character and distinct complexity. The layers of fruit, berries and honey jump out. There’s nothing subtle about it.

Winemaker David Cronin has been making the wine for the Buehler family with 100 percent Napa zinfandel since 1993, the vineyard Web site says. The grapes are picked late to produce more red zinfandel flavor, and it shows. My only objection to the wine is that it is a bit on the sweet side, but with highly seasoned food, it hangs in there. That’s not a characteristic that I attribute to most rosÐs. I guess that’s why they call it white zinfandel.

Buehler is a little hard to find, but if you don’t see at the New Hampshire Liquor Store, ask for it. It’s distributed by Martignetti Companies. It’s a lot of wine for $8.99.



Smoking Loon wines have a lot of character and are good across the board, particularly for the prices. I love a bargain, and Smoking Loon falls into that category. It normally sells for $11.99, but is usually on sale for $3 less at most stores in the Upper Valley. The New Hampshire Liquor Store also sells it for $8.99. It’s a great buy.
By recommending the Smoking Loon cabernet sauvignon, I’m not breaking new ground — it has been called one of America’s most popular cabs, and about 175,000 cases sell a year — but it’s worth saying that it’s good enough to serve to friends and is a step beyond ordinary wine. The wine has a dark plum color and blackberry flavors. It’s recommended with lamb chops and mint jelly. I tried it with Brunswick stew, and it was great.
The merlot is a little lighter, with cherry and plum flavors. I had it with a selection of fine chili, and it was perfectly matched.
The sauvignon blanc is crisp and fresh with citrus flavors and just enough sweetness to keep it from being too tart. It’s perfect for just drinking on one of those warm, breezy spring or summer nights and with fish or shellfish.



Fred Franzia and Branco Wines produce Two-Buck Chuck and other 62 ultra-value labels. He has contributed to the renewed interest in wine drinking and has introduced wine to millions of new customers, who might some day graduate to the higher priced boutique brands, or like me, just keep drinking the cheap stuff. Crane Lake is one of his latest offerings, and it has become one of his fastest growing brands in the country.
It's a top seller in Vermont, and it’s just been introduced broadly in New Hampshire. The wine sells throughout Vermont in general stores and at Price Chopper in West Lebanon and Windsor and the Hanover Lebanon Co-Op has the wine. The New Hampshire Liquor Store sells a couple of the Crane Lake wines in Claremont and New London.
I found Crane Lake at Baker’s Store in Thetford for $4.99. It's around $3.50 at Price Chopper.
Crane Lake is one of the best tips I’ve had. The wine is on the light side and pleasant to sip along with appetizers or a meal. Best of all, it’s an exceptional bargain and great to have as a table wine around the house. It won’t replace the fine, well-crafted wines being produced by small, hard-working vintners, but Fred Franzia and Bronco Wines have found a great niche.



Leaping Horse is made by the Kautz Family, which produces some pretty good and more expensive Lodi, Calif., wines under the Ironstone label.
The wine is a good representative of the area, and it has a funny label with a mustachioed overweight guy riding a galloping overweight horse. The wacky British graphic designer Haydn Cornner, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, created the label.
Both the 2004 cabernet sauvignon and the 2005 Shiraz have a good deal of fruit flavors and are well balanced. The cab has a hint of oak, and just a whiff of the sun and dust of Lodi.



Golden Gate Cabernet Sauvignon is a refreshing blend that sells at Shaw’s for $2.99. It occasionally goes on sale for $2. There’s no pretense about it. It’s young, but very drinkable, and it’s light, 12.5 percent alcohol, and crisp enough to go with any meal or appetizer.



One of my favorite lines of inexpensive California wines is Pepperwood Grove with the distinctive bright green labels. The wines sell for $8.99 and are produced by Don Sebastiani and Sons, a family who pioneered California winemaking. Sebastiani also produces Smoking Loon.
All of the Pepperwood wines are vintage, and year after year receive high ratings and the “Best Buy” awards from Wine Enthusiast magazine. The newly released 2005 Chardonnay got an 88 rating out of 100 and is the magazine’s Best Buy for February 2007.
One of the best Pepperwood wines is the Pinot Noir, but I also like the Cabernet Sauvignon. The Old Vine Zinfandel is extraordinary.
Pepperwood produces two Pinots, one that is 100 percent Chilean fruit and another that has a majority of Chilean grapes (54 percent) blended with others from Sonoma, Mendocino and Napa counties. For both, the color is light and the flavor is mild. The winemaker suggests that they go well with Asian food. I agree. The Chilean was terrific with pan-seared tuna and spicy, ginger broccoli.
In the grocery stores, Pepperwood carries a $3 off at the register tag, and if you buy six bottles, there’s another $5 off. That brings the price down close to $5. The N.H. Liquor Store often sells the wine for two for $12.



Barefoot Cellars, which pitches itself as “Get Barefoot and Have a Great Time,” is offering a line of blended wines that are good and priced right at $5 a bottle. And, they are fun.
One of my favorites is the Cabernet Sauvignon. It is a good everyday dinner wine and has garnered awards for quality and as a “best buy.” The Barefoot Cab is heavy, 13 percent alcohol, and fruity, but still very smooth. Barefoot says the wine goes well with the usual red meats and red sauces, but I found it to be pretty versatile, and it doesn’t overpower chicken or fish, especially if there’s garlic involved. Also don’t be afraid to try the Barefoot Syrah and Merlot. Both are award winning and good.



It’s hard to beat Barefoot Bubbly California Premium Extra Dry Chardonnay Champagne for the money. Owners Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey along with winemaker Jennifer Wall have been producing wines under the Barefoot label for about 20 years. They have built the business by producing good, affordable wines.
The Barefoot extra dry bubbly has been garnering awards in California and elsewhere. It’s available at grocery stores. It’s often for sale around $5.



One of the best areas zinfandel is Lodi in the northern central part of the state. The hot and dry climate is perfect to give the grapes their deep, rich character. For years, Lodi grapes have been shipped to regions in the state and used by winemakers to beef up their zinfandel. Now, Lodi is coming into its own as a top wine region.
A very good zin is Gnarly Head, which is produced from Lodi grapes by winemaker Sue Hoffman for the Indelicato family. By law, a wine has to be made from at least 75 percent of a grape to be named after the grape. For the 2005 Gnarly Head, Hoffman created a blend of 77 percent zinfandel and 23 percent petite syrah, which was done to give the wine balance, a company spokesman said. The result is a rich, but not too heavy, wine with a 14.5 percent alcohol content by volume. It’s a good summer red.
Gnarly Head is named after 35- to 80-year-old zin vines that are grown free-standing, rather than trellised, and look gnarly, the company’s Web site says. The Indelicatos have been producing wine from the vineyard for over 40 years, but didn’t start making Gnarly Head until 2004. It’s a very good wine for $9.99 and is widely available. They produced about 100,000 cases last year.
The grapes grow in the hot sun and may stay on the vine a little longer than other varietals, so the flavors run deep enough for it to hold its own with smoky barbecue ribs, chicken and pulled pork as well as with other foods such as pizza and chili.



This wine has a little personality to go along with its distinctive character and great price. Pepperwood Grove’s Old Vine Zinfandel is from Lodi, and you can taste the sun and soil, but its spicy is remarkable. Richard Bruno, who makes all the Pepperwood wines for Don Sebastiani and Sons, blends 75 percent zinfandel and 25 percent petite syrah for this light and relatively low alcohol wine.
I’ve been drinking this zin from time to time over the last year, and I really like it for the money. It's on sale regularly for $5.99. Although I found the 2004 to be better, the 2005s are still very good, especially for the price. It’s also widely available, except at the New Hampshire Liquor store.
So, the next time you have barbecue, cook it low and slow and try it with side dishes of braised kale, corn bread and sliced tomatoes and break out the Pepperwood Grove Old Vine Zinfandel.

 

 

 

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