June 22, 2007
Beringer White Zinfandel
Beringer White Zinfandel, 2006, California
Having been drinking some pretty heavyweight wines recently, I decided to mix it up a little bit this week with a White Zinfandel. After carefully focusing on subtle flavors for so long, the White Zin almost feels like an assault on the senses. But after taking a moment to remind myself that, no, I am *not* yet that big of a wine snob, I sit back and enjoy this sweet and refreshing beverage.
Although White Zins are a pretty pink color, Zinfandel is actually a type of red grape that thrives in California. White Zinfandel as we know it was first created by accident in the 1970s; Sutter Home, a winery that specialized in red zinfandels was using a technique of separating some juice from their red zinfandel grapes before fermentation to create a more concentrated red wine. The excess juice from the red zinfandel grapes was later fermented into a cheap white wine. However, a mistake in the fermentation process left Sutter Home with a sweet pink wine that actually tasted pretty good! They sold it as White Zinfandel and a new wine was born.
Today Sutter Home and Berringer are the two major producers of White Zinfandel, a California wine that accounts for 10% of all wine sold in the United States, despite being mostly dismissed by serious wine coinsures. It’s sweet, it’s unpretentious, and you can buy a bottle for under $6. Is it any wonder people love it so?