Greetings from the ZAP Office in Rough & Ready, California!

Great job, Gary, talking about Zinfandel just now. We wanted to answer your question regarding the Heritage Vineyard Zinfandel. The first vintage from the vineyard was produced in 1997 by Nils Venge, Saddleback Cellars. To add to what you said, ZAP supports the research at the vineyard run by the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology, under the direction of Dr. James Wolpert. The research we are doing will help ensure Zinfandel’s future. Thanks for your interest and spreading the word about this unusual historic vineyard.

Also, just a quick word to the Vayniacs out there. Our Festival in San Francisco has four very different events. Check it out!

Cheers!
Rebecca Robinson

QOTD: The best and most enjoyable wine event that I have been to was the most recent Fort Mason party in San Francisco!

Thanks, G, I’ve been pondering what to pop tonight and I think you’ve just made my decision for me: a zin.

QOTD: Taste of Walla Walla. Most of the biggies from WW are there and are very generous with their pours. And, if you can last till the end, some are finishing off bottles and are not shy about filling whole glasses. Then, you bust out to after parties at the local tasting rooms (most within walking distance) for more. It’s like Spring break for wine nerds.

QOTD: never been to one with > 50 peeps.

QOTD: No wine events for a while, unfortunately.

I brought Sebastiani Zinfandel to my French host family when I visited France a long time ago. The father of the family said it tasted like the wine he drank in Algeria during the war there.

I liked the short show. I’m glad your mixing up the formats in 2009, maybe now it will be easier for me to catch up on all the episodes I missed.

QOTD: Ok, so I have 2. Definately in first place was the ExpoVina in Zurich. 20 Swiss Francs, and you can taste as many wines as you can get to. It’s amazing. It was set up on 7 different boats on the lake in Zurich and you walk from boat to boat. And then in second place, I went to this thing in Epcot Center in Disneyworld in Orlando. It was the Epcot Food and Wine festival. It was set up in the Epcot World Showcase, so you walk around the lake and there are booths set up from different countries with all kinds of different foods and wines. It was pretty expensive because you have to pay at every booth, but I had such a good time with my two best friends that it was so worth the money.

QOTD: EASY! The first Vayniac Cab barrel tasting at Crushpad. This is when I first met Gary, and a few of us extended the party afterwords at a VERY small local wine bar… which was a bit overwhelmed by us when we all arrived to pack the place!

Ete’ du Vin. And we’re glad that this year you’re going to be joining us here in Nashville for that.

QOTD: South Beach Wine and Food Festival
http://hospitality.fiu.edu/sobe/

Hospice D’Rhone Paso Robles. It’s hot, It’s crowded, It’s expensive, It’s great!!!

Hospice D’Rhone Paso Robles. It’s hot, It’s crowded, It’s expensive, It’s great!!!

QOTD: Big Red in Manhattan, all the red meat and St Francis wines you can enjoy, their Pagani vineyard Zin is one of my favorites.

I like the new angle: fewer distractions than straight on the window.

QOTD: I’m not a big fan of the large-scale overcrowded wine events, although I still attend some. The best event I’ve ever attended was a relatively small and super exclusive Haut Brion dinner in London last year, hosted by the Claret Club (details and TN’s in the Forum http://tv.winelibrary.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14366&highlight=).

QOTD: I am sad to say that I have never been to a wine event that wasn’t a tasting I or friends of mine have put together! I have been to some great beer fests, though.

I just might go to this ZAP fest next year. I love the Zins!

QOTD: Never been to one with more than 10 people. =(

QOTD: Never been to one with more than 10 people. =(

The Thunder Cruise will be the BEST wine event I’ve ever been to!

Nice job would like to see more on Zins on the show!

QOTD: The first one I went to was in Chicago put on my Binny’s at Drury Lane Theater – over 600 wines – had a blast and got me hooked! The best one was in Grant Park in Chicago, great food, great wine and under the stars by the lake – it was wonderful!!! No great stand out wines, but the experience was worth it!

Nice job would like to see more on Zins on the show!

QOTD: The first one I went to was in Chicago put on my Binny’s at Drury Lane Theater – over 600 wines – had a blast and got me hooked! The best one was in Grant Park in Chicago, great food, great wine and under the stars by the lake – it was wonderful!!! No great stand out wines, but the experience was worth it!

Great show, while I’m not a huge fan of Zin – most are too jammy for me – I have tasted a bunch.

QOTD: I’ve been to many, several industry wine tastings in Orlando, the The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Miami (this year February 19-22, 2009 http://www.sobewineandfoodfest.com/2009/index.php ), several years of the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival in the Fall (http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/epcot/special-events/epcot-international-food-and-wine-festival/ ), the Sandestin Food Wine & Food Festival http://www.sandestinwinefestival.com/success.php , St Mary’s College (Moraga, CA) Summer Wine Festival (Aug 2009)to name a few.

QotD – The mind reels to the myriad events, trade shows, and gala/ benefits over the years. Zap 1999 Trade Show was great cause my employer set up private appointments for three days at the likes of Saddleback, Silver Oak, Pine Ridge, etc.

‘M’ makes a valid point about the downside of big public events – while they can be great, informative, and fun, there’s often a threshold of diminished returns if you’re not ready to handle the sometimes ‘boisterous’ crowds.

At another place, we held a bi-monthly tasting for about a hundred, or so, but the year culminated with our smaller Cream of the Crop show for the deep pockets. My first year there, we greeted guests w/ 1993 Bella Vista Franciacorta from 3L. Next, Pol Roger Brut Reserve in Mags. We also poured, on that sunny day, ’97 Napanook, ’96 Silver Oak, Napa, ’00 Opus, ’00 and ’01 Viader, as well as Caymus, a couple of Luce, ’96 Clerc-Milon, ’98 Lunch-Bags,’98 Petite- Eglise, and several Vintage Ports, and dessrt wines. Country club setting, tableside carving, and all that stuff I’d known, and had before, but when it became me hosting an event like this – then I felt great.

Sorry……………..don’t do wine “events”. Too many people for my pleasure. However, we do occasionally go to wine tastings pared with foods, which we find enjoyable. A very nice one was at the Iron Gate Restaurant in D.C., held jointly with the Barboursville Winery in VA.
They also took some grapes, which are grown on sight, (in the middle of DC no less), and produced a souvenir bottle for the guests. A nice event.
Continue to like the one bottle reviews.

Zins always please me, but never seem to have that many on hand.

QOTD: I really haven’t been to any over 50 people that I really enjoyed, almost all were either VA producers or featured meh producers IMO like Taste of DC. I have really enjoyed the few wine dinners I have attended, especially the Shea Vineyard one, but none were over 30 people or so.

QOTD: Sorry to say that all the wine events I have been in attendence at, I was working and not tasting. The Hudson Valley Wine Fest was lots of fun…altough all I remember was dishing up portions of lasagna for the all happy folks at the festival. Thanks for the show!