Zinfandel
Zinfandel is a popular grape in California, although it appears to have originated in Croatia, where it is known as Crljenak Kastelanski, and southern Italy, where it is known as Primitivo. Zinfandel produces powerful, spicy reds with forward raspberry and pepper notes. It can also be used to produce a semisweet rosé (blush) wine called White Zinfandel. You can use Wine Enthusiast’s online Buying Guide to find the top-rated Zinfandel among our extensive Zinfandel wine reviews and easy-to-use database. Our Zinfandel reviews will give you a general idea what to expect from wines made from Zinfandel, and will help you find one that best suits your needs.
Ravenswood 2007 Belloni Single Vineyard Zinfandel (Russian River Valley)
- Editors' Choice
- $35
A terrific Zinfandel, with a polished, pretty structure and ripe, vibrantly classic Zinny flavors. Floods the mouth with berries, cola, licorice, mocha and dusty spices, wrapped into beautifully fine, ripe tannins. Impossible to resist sip after sip. Defines Russian River Zinfandel at its best.
— S.H.
(3/1/2010)
Ravenswood 2007 Dickerson Single Vineyard Zinfandel (Napa Valley)
- Editors' Choice
- $35
Hard to exaggerate the beauty of this single-vineyard Zin. It has the balanced elegance of a fine Cabernet, yet with Zinfandel’s exuberant, briary flavors of wild forest berries, spices, Mexican molé sauce, anise, cola and sandalwood. Delicious and compelling, and a perfect pairing with your best grilled meats.
— S.H.
(3/1/2010)
Seghesio 2007 Cortina Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley)
- $36
A beautiful massive, mouthfilling Zinfandel. Impresses on every level, from the smooth, rich tannins to the dryness and above all the depth and range of flavors. Blackberries, chocolate, anise, bacon, pepper, sandalwood, the list goes on. Zinfandel doesn’t get much richer than this. The alcohol is 15.5%.
— S.H.
(5/1/2010)
Seghesio 2009 Old Vine Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley)
- Editors' Choice
- $38
As chewy and umami, salty delicious as a mouthful of crunchy bacon. Throw in dried blackberries and blueberries, with a touch of smoky new oak, and that describes this fantastically pure, addictively good Zinfandel. The grape sourcing is from old vineyards in the Alexander and Dry Creek Valleys. Truly a great Zin, and relatively easy to find, with 9,000 cases produced.
— S.H.
(3/1/2012)
Storybook Mountain 2008 Estate Reserve Zinfandel (Napa Valley)
- $55
This is the most elegant of the winery’s new Zinfandels, although elegant has to be taken in context when it comes to mountain fruit with this intensity and power. It’s a big wine, with potent raspberry, cherry and blackberry fruit. Yet there’s a delicacy to it, even considering the tannins, that’s almost like a Pinot Noir, strange as that sounds. Earns its high…
— S.H.
(12/31/2011)
Tres Vinicultores 2008 The Industrial Zinfandel (Sonoma County)
- $40
One of the best Zinfandels of the vintage. This wine is exuberant in wild berry, briary, brambly nettle, cola, red currant, licorice and bacon flavors, with Zin’s peppery spiciness. The alcohol is very high, so drink carefully, but that’s what it took to make a wine this distinctive.
— S.H.
(5/1/2011)
Williams Selyem 2007 Papera Vineyard Zinfandel (Russian River Valley)
- Editors' Choice
- $48
The 2007 vintage was a fabulous one for Williams Selyem, and the Zinfandels benefited from the cool, balanced growing season. The Papera is a big, rich, jammy wine, but also a drily elegant one. It offers waves of raspberry, Fig Newton, red currant and Canadian bacon flavors, with superfine tannins. An exuberant Zinfandel now and for the next six years.
— S.H.
(2/1/2010)
Keegan 1996 Zinfandel (Sonoma County)
- $24
This hand-punched Zin is a real treat. Packed with lush brambly flavor, it’s a wine to enjoy now. Aging in some American oak barrels has imparted an obvious sweet vanilla note, one that works well with the hefty body of the wine. With 14% Petite Sirah, this is a classy but rustic wine; unfined and unfiltered.
— M.S.
(9/1/1999)
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