Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Primitivo del Salento

This is one of the wines on available with Sainsbury's '2 can dine for £10' offer, the others being white and rosé Pinot Grigio. Primitivo is the Italian name for Zinfandel.

It's very much a warm-weather red. It's produced in Puglia in south east Italy, which is the 'heel' in the boot.

What I meant by a warm-weather red is that it has a lot of grapey, raisiny flavours. Certainly gluggable, but not my cup of tea.

Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Primivito del Salento

Puglia, Italy

Sainsbury's

2.5/5

Bonterra Zinfandel 2007

I'd been wanting to try this wine for awhile. I'm a big fan of Bonterra's Chardonnay, and their rosé isn't bad either.

True to form, this wine is good. I didn't think Zinfandel was one of my favourite varieties, but when a wine is well made from good fruit and by a good producer, variety doesn't matter. This is the case here.

The wine is a bit lush and 'sweet', and also has high alcohol, but a lot of people really like this style, myself included. It's a tad pricey at £10.99, but well worth it when it's on offer (as was the case here). It's impressive and makes a statement. It's not massively complex or long, but that's fine. I think Bonterra's wines are good, but maybe a couple of pounds overpriced. That seems to be a problem with a lot of California wine however, and I don't hold it against the producer.

Bonterra

Zindfandel 2007

Mendocino County, California

Waitrose Wine Direct

£8.35 (£10.44)

3.5/5

Renwood Zinfandel Grandpère 2004

A friend of mine who was visiting from Canada brought me this wine. He used to live in California, and this was one of his personal favourites. I'm grateful to him for bringing this as it was from his own personal stash.

I don't often drink Zinfandel. My initial experience with it at a Wine Society tasting was memorable for all the wrong reasons. My main beef with it was it seemed to have a tomato-like flavour and aroma that I found really off-putting. I've avoided it ever since, which isn't really all that difficult since it's not the most common grape variety seen in the UK.

This wine by Renwood Winery, located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, couldn't be more different. It's apparently made from possibly the oldest Zinfandel vineyard in America, the 20 acre Grandpère vineyard, dating back 130 years.

Wine writers love to heap scorn on this style of wine. To borrow some clichés: Big, bold, high in alcohol, bigger-is-better-in-America, etc, etc they all apply here. That doesn't mean the wine isn't enjoyable though. It has a wonderful nose, full of fruit and almost floral perfume. I had to double check that women's perfume hadn't somehow rubbed off on the glass. It has a thick, syrupy texture and hugely concentrated cherry fruit flavour. Very good indeed, and none of that tomato stuff going on.

By the second glass, the alcohol (15.5%) can seem a bit drying, and you start to notice some vanilla oakiness. Whether or not this is a fault is really down to personal preference though.

Americans love their Zinfandel. If they all taste like this, I can certainly see why.

Renwood Winery
Grandpère Zinfandel 2004
Amador County, California, USA

~$40 (USD)
4.5/5

Ravenswood Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel 2006

On a recent research trip to offshore California I took the opportunity to sample the wines of the mainland. A wine producer that seemed to consistently deliver top quality wines at a decent price was Ravenswood. They are based in Sonoma County but I was surprised to see that they apparently have some production going on in the little known Central Valley AVA of Lodi (not exactly a hot bed of wine geek interest). Lodi is home to some old vine Zinfandel, hence this bottling.

The Ravenswood moto is 'no wimpy wines' and boy thats true. This is a beast of a wine. The colour is an intense purple red but is just a prelude to the coming sensory onslaught. Blackberries and pepper positively explode from the wine, both in the nose and taste. A mouthful gives you three stages of intense flavour: 1) jammy fruit, 2) soooo much pepper and 3) burnt toffee in an exceedingly long finish. Subtle this aint. It almost tastes of the scorching hot Central Valley. This is a wine to enjoy with bbq meat and a strong disposition. I loved it but I have a feeling that for some people this wine would be a little too much. If you like big flavoursome wines then this is for you though. Could be a bit like Marmite though...

Ravenswood
Old vine Zinfandel 2006
Lodi, Central Valley, California
Sainsbury’s
£8.50
3.5/5