Events

The first event is called Epicuria. For three hours beginning at 6pm on Thursday, January 26, attendees will walk the hall, tasting food from fine Bay Area restaurants paired with specific Zinfandel wines. There will be 50 combinations available. Nobody is going to leave hungry! There will also be cooking and pairing demonstrations featuring the chefs and sommeliers from San Francisco restaurants A16 and Wayfare Tavern. Tickets are $125 for the general public, $95 for ZAP members. This event will probably sell out. Act soon if you want to go.

Friday night’s winemaker dinner is premium reception, dinner and auction at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. It is scheduled to run from 5pm to 10pm. The $225 admission gives you access to special wines and the winemakers as well. The event is almost sold out.

Saturday’s ZAP! Grand Tasting is truly a Zinfandel extravaganza. 200 wineries will each pour multiple wines. There will also be a seminar with five sommeliers and a cooking demo. The tasting runs from 2pm to 5pm and tickets are $69 at the door. Buy in advance for a $10 discount. ZAP members pay just $49 and are admitted for tasting at 1PM. They can also enjoy winemaker workshops.

Recommendations

The Grand Tasting is an amazing tasting opportunity, but the number of available wines can be daunting. Here’s a short list of wineries sure to wow at ZAP! (in alphabetical order):

• Bedrock Wine Company - Morgan Twain-Peterson makes excellent old vine Zinfandel varietal wines, but don’t miss the “heirloom” wines, old vine, mixed-black blends.
• Black Sears - I’m high on their black peppery estate Zinfandel from the top of Howell Mountain.
• Cypher Winery - Cypher produces single-vineyard Zins and off-the-hook, off-the-wall blends.
• Gamba Vineyards and Winery - The Gamba family, in it’s 6th generation of grape growing, makes characterful Russian River Valley Zinfandel.
• McCay Cellars — McCay proves that old vine Lodi Zinfandel can be both delicious and balanced.
• Ridge Vineyards - Ridge was one of the first wineries to take Zinfandel seriously. They still do it well.
• Scott Harvey Wines - Their 1869 is history in a bottle. It comes from the Sierra Foothills vineyard recognized as California’s oldest productive plot of Zinfandel.
• Storybook Mountain Vineyards - Zinfandel hooks up with Cabernet Sauvignon and they live happily ever after.
• Tres Sabores - Rutherford’s magic fairy dust works on Zinfandel too. A recent Wine of the Day.
• Valdez Family Winery - Spinal Tap fans will love these delicious Zinfandels that go to 11 and taste like 90+.

Logistics

This year, ZAP! will be held at the The Concourse (8th and Brannan in San Francisco). In previous years it was held at Fort Mason. The new venue won’t offer marvelous bay views, but it will be warmer in temperature and ambience. Walking the carpeted hall will also be easier on the feet than was the hard concrete of Fort Mason. More importantly to many, parking will be plentiful and public transport convenient. There are 1,200 public parking spaces in the vicinity. The Concourse is just five long blocks from Caltrain and seven from BART (Civic Center/UN Plaza). Shuttle transport is available.

If you'd like to follow the events via Twitter, the hashtag is #ZinFest. The #Zinfandel and #ZAP hashtags and the @TheZinfandelOrg handle will also be useful searches.

For more information about the ZAP! Festival and to order tickets, go to Zinfandel.org.

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This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Copyright 2012 NorCal Wine. All rights reserved.