Why You Should Be Drinking Zinfandel

  As you may have read in the previous blog post zinfandel doesn't get much respect. That's really too bad as it's a great sipping wine and a great dinner wine. It's not as heavy as a cabernet or as light as a pinot noir so it does a nice job of fitting in between for those medium-weight dishes. A side benefit is zin is generally less expensive than a comparable cab or pinot.

  As mentioned in the previous post zin comes in two camps. One, fruity, soft (lower acid), a bit sweet tasting. Two, drier, structured, some tannins and oak showing. Okay, you can't pigeon-hole every one this way so it's a simplification to make the styles understandable. Because of the different approaches to making zinfandel the wine has a wide range of uses as a "cocktail" wine and at the dinner table.

Thinking about a cab or malbec with that stew?
Next time try a zinfandel

  The fruit-forward ones tend to be full-bodied and can even be port-like in that they can seem sweet and alcoholic. The drier tastings zins are generally more medium-bodied.

  Food pairings? Meat! Classic parings are ribs, sausages, pizza, pasta with tomato-based sauces. The fruit-forward zins with anything with a sweeter BBQ sauce and hearty meat or pasta dishes. The drier zins with sausages, burgers, many beef dishes, pork, anything a bit spicy especially with those tangy-style BBQ sauces. Yes, even things like pork chops and chicken if you "dress" them accordingly with the right spices, sauces, onions, peppers, garlic, etc.

  Zinfandel = versatile