Zin Nation at the Cincinnati Wine Festival

This weekend is the 21st Cincinnati International Wine Festival, and if you’re in the area I highly recommend checking it out.  It’s your chance to sample hundreds of different wines, all in one place.  They have tastings on Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening.  If you want the bargain price, and the smaller crowds, go for the Saturday afternoon tasting.

This afternoon I met up with winemaker Sue Hofmann, from DFV Wines, and previewed some of her wines that she’ll be pouring at the festival.  Although it’s not all she does, Sue’s specialty is zinfandel.  And she produces zinfandel for a few different labels.  If you don’t recognize the DFV Wines name, don’t be alarmed.  That’s the name of the parent company and you’re much more likely to recognize their brands: Bota Box, Twisted, Gnarly Head and Brazin to name a few.

While talking with Sue today she shared that zinfandel producers are really refining their craft in the recent years to produce better and better zin.  And the wines Sue is creating are a great example of that.  She spends time with the growers, and her experience — focused on zinfandel — has enabled her to really understand what each plot and grower is capable of producing.  She selects the grapes for each wine to create different styles of zinfandel, each with their own unique nuances.

The wines she and DFV are producing are also value-focused — which makes us like them that much more.  Most of their wines are in the $5 to $15 per bottle price range.

Here are a few that I tasted today.  I should note that I’m not scoring these wines, as I didn’t taste them in my normal environment with my normal processes.  Yes, I’m very strict about that.  I don’t just pull a number out of the air when I score it, but I evaluate each wine against 16 qualitative measures.  It’s a tedious process and I just didn’t have time to do it today.  And I normally like to taste blind, which I didn’t do today.  All that said, I would expect all of these wines to end up in the low to mid 80’s, if not 90ish for the Brazin.

Bota Box 2009 Old Vine Zinfandel

This wine is a light red color.  When I first smelled it, there was slight fish smell to it, which was a bit of a turn off, but it dissipated as the wine opened up.  And once it did open up it showed dusty blackberry and soft plum aromas.  The palate is on the lighter side for a zinfandel, but it still offered plenty of jammy red fruit.  In a way I’d describe this as a “light and lively” zinfandel.  It’s certainly not my top shelf zinfandel, but it’s enjoyable and a steal of a deal at $20 a box — that’s the equivalent of $5.00 per bottle.

Gnarly Head 2009 Old Vine Zin

We recently reviewed the 2008 Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin and liked it a lot.  So I was glad to get a chance to taste the 2009.   The nose came right to life on this wine, with plenty of oak — most notably presenting itself with a strong vanilla note.  Sue informed me that the oak in this is from staves, not barrels, which are basically oak sticks that are soaked in the wine.  Some snobs may turn their nose at them, but they are much less expensive than barrels — which saves us consumers money while still imparting oak qualities to the wine.  And as Sue described it, being able to use different staves provides the winemaker with a “spice cabinet” to work with.

In addition to the oak on the nose, this wine also shows a cherry cola aroma.  That cola also comes through on the palate and make for a fun zinfandel.  It’s a full and juicy palate too, with gobs of cherry and blackberry flavors in addition to the cola.  It’s a nice wine for about $10.00.

Brazin 2008 Old Vine Zin

This is another wine that we’ve tasted before, at least a previous vintage.  We gave the 2007 Brazin Old Vine Zin a solid 88 points.  I’m sure the 2008 would hold up to that, if not do a little better.

The garnet color to this wine is just beautiful.  The nose is smoky with raspberry, cherry and cured meat aromas, all with outstanding intensity.  Likewise, the palate offers exceptional concentration to the flavors of black cherry, plum, cola and nice nutmeg spice.  The finish is long and beautiful.  The oak in this one does come from barreling, not staves, for those of you who are uptight about those things.  This is a great wine and a great value at about $15.00.

If you do go to the Cincinnati Wine Festival this weekend you can taste these and other wines from Sue Hofmann and DFV at the “Zin Nation” booth.

Disclosure: These wines were provided as a sample.