You can always count on the ZAP Zinfandel festival in San Francisco to draw a crowd, no matter what the economy is doing. The fact that things are picking up, both for business, and specifically in the wine world, meant for a very lively event last week.

The big news was a new venue for this traditionally mobbed tasting, that most attendees seemed to love, myself included. While the arrangement of vintners left something to be desired (tables were supposed to be alphabetical, but it was more like alphabet soup than a line from A to Z), everything else about the Concourse Exhibition Center was better than the usual venue, Fort Mason. Carpeted floors meant for a much lower level of ambient noise, the lighting was better, and the wood structured building felt much more pleasant to be in than an old army assembly hall.

But we weren't there for the building, we were there for Zinfandel, the wine that refuses to take itself too seriously. While there are certainly a few cult Zinfandels that are lauded by critics, somehow Zinfandel doesn't have the gravitas of Cabernet, or the mystique of Burgundy. Though some can age into very interesting concoctions, most Zinfandel is best drunk young, and therefore is almost never hoarded by collectors. Zinfandel is a wine of immediate pleasure, and easy passion, that, when great, brings a ready smile to the lips and a warmth to the heart. And it doesn't hurt that you can get great bottles for under $25.

This year's tasting featured many 2010 wines, which have a slightly leaner, cooler quality to them than the 2009s or 2008s. The vintage was generally accorded to be a challenging one (though nothing compared to 2011), but quite different between, say, Healdsburg, and Lodi. While I found much to like about the seemingly cooler 2010s I definitely favor the 2009 vintage in comparison.

That said, there were some fantastic wines on offer. I did my usual scattershot tasting for five hours or so, and offer the scores and some tasting notes for my favorites below. All wines are Zinfandel unless otherwise noted.

TASTING NOTES:

WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 9.5

2009 Bella Wines Lilly Hill Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $38
Dark garnet in color, this wine smells of blackberry and wet dirt. In the mouth a gorgeous melange of blackberry, blueberry, and black pepper mix amidst faint powdery tannins and bright acidity. Juicy and luscious without being overripe, the wine lingers for a long time in the finish. Outstanding. click to buy.

2010 Hartford Family Winery Highwire Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $55
Dark garnet in the glass, this wine has a deep dark nose of cassis and blackberry fruit that makes you want to dive into the glass. In the mouth juicy, cool blackberry and cassis fruit have an almost metallic quality as their juicy flavors are wrapped in fine powdery tannins. Great acidity, wonderful balance, deep richness. Outstanding. click to buy.

2010 Carlisle Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $45 click to buy.
2010 Ravenswood Winery Dickerson Vineyard - Barrel Sample, Napa. $35
2010 Turley Vineyards Hayne Vineyard - Barrel Sample, Napa. $75

WINES WITH A SCORE BETWEEN 9 AND 9.5

2008 Hendry Primitivo, Napa. $35
Dark garnet in the glass, this wine has a wonderful chocolatey nose of earth, cocoa, and blackberry aromas. In the mouth rich blackberry and chocolate flavors are underwritten by a leathery earthiness that is quite compelling. Thick grippy tannins surround the wine, but good acidity keeps things juicy and tasty through the finish. Delicious and quite possibly the best California Primitivo I've ever had. click to buy.

2006 Storrs Winery Rusty Ridge, Santa Clara County, Central Coast. $30
Medium ruby in the glass, this wine has a mysterious nose of orange peel, cedar and blackberry aromas. In the mouth, flavors of brown sugar, mixed berries, and exotic spices swirl in a lithe texture. Good acidity and wonderfully soft, faint tannins round out the package. Gorgeous, and proof positive that some Zinfandel does, indeed, improve with age. click to buy.

2009 Valdez Family Vineyards St. Peter's Church Vineyard, Alexander Valley, Sonoma. $45
Dark garnet in the glass, this wine has a wonderful mix of woody aromas and black fruit scents. In the mouth a burst of blackberry, wet earth, and a bit of blueberry are encased in a glove of suede-smooth tannins. Good acidity and nice length. Delicious. click to buy.

2009 Bella Wines Belle Canyon Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $35 click to buy.
2009 Bella Wines Maple Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $38 click to buy.
2010 Carlisle Martinelli Road Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $45 click to buy.
2010 Cedarville Vineyards Estate Vineyard, El Dorado, Sierra Foothills. $22 click to buy.
2009 Fritz Winery Reserve, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $50 click to buy.
2009 Gamba Family Winery Gamba Family Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $43 click to buy.
2009 Hartford Family Winery Dina's Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $55 click to buy.
2009 J.C. Cellars Iron Hill Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $38 click to buy.
2009 Kokomo Pauline's Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $32 click to buy.
2010 Outpost, California Howell Mountain, Napa. $44 click to buy.
2008 Ravenswood Winery Dickerson Vineyard, Napa. $35 click to buy.
2008 Ravenswood Winery Big River Vineyard, Alexander Valley, Sonoma. $35 click to buy.
2008 Ravenswood Winery Belloni Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $35 click to buy.
2008 Ravenswood Winery Teldeschi Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $35 click to buy.
2010 Ravenswood Winery Teldeschi Vineyard - Barrel Sample, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $35 click to buy.
2010 Ravenswood Winery Old Hill Vineyard - Barrel Sample, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $60 click to buy.
2006 Storrs Winery Lion Oaks, Santa Clara County, Central Coast. $30 click to buy.
2007 Valdez Family Vinyards Lancel Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $38 click to buy.
2007 Woodenhead Martinelli Road Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $45 click to buy.
2009 Woodenhead Braccialini Vineyard, Alexander Valley, Sonoma. $34 click to buy.

WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 9

2010 Ridge Vineyards Geyserville - Barrel Sample, California, Sonoma. $37
Medium garnet in the glass, this wine smells of wet earth and black fruits. In the mouth bright acidity makes slightly leathery flavors of blackberry and and wet stones juicy. The fruit is cool and surrounded by dusty tannins. Moderate finish.

2010 Ridge Vineyards Lytton Springs - Barrel Sample, California Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $37
Medium garnet in the glass, this wine smells of cassis and wet stones. In the mouth smooth tannins wrap around tart earthy flavors of cassis and blackberry. A long finish that is bright with acidity lingers in the mouth.

2009 Ballantine Old Vines, Napa. $21
2010 Bedrock Wine Company Heirloom Red Blend, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $36
2010 Bedrock Wine Company Old Vine, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $24
2008 Bucklin Old Hill Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $34
2009 Bucklin Bambino Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $24
2009 Cedarville Vineyards Estate Vineyard, El Dorado, Sierra Foothills. $22
2009 Charter Oak Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $48
2008 D-Cubed Cellars Cotati Ranch, St. Helena, Napa. $32
2009 Easton Wines Rinaldi, Fiddletown, Sierra Foothills. $28
2010 Fontanella Family Winery Barrel Sample, Napa Valley, Napa. $36
2009 Frank Family Vineyard, , Napa. $??
2009 Gamba Family Winery Moratto Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $43
2009 Hendry Block 7 + 22, Napa. $35
2009 J.C. Cellars Dusi Ranch, Paso Robles, Central Coast. $35
2009 J.C. Cellars Sweetwater Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $38
2009 J.C. Cellars St. Peter's Church Vineyard, Alexander Valley, Sonoma. $45
2009 J.C. Cellars The Impostor Red Blend, Sonoma County. $35
2009 Joel Gott, Amador County, Sierra Foothills. $??
2009 Klinker Brick Old Ghost, Lodi, Central Valley. $37
2009 Kokomo Timber Crest Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $32
2009 Kokomo, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $26
2009 Milliare Clock Spring Vineyard, Amador County, Sierra Foothills. $??
2008 Ravenswood Winery Barricia Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $35
2008 Ravenswood Winery Old Hill Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $60
2009 Ravenswood Winery Icon Red Blend, Sonoma. $75
2010 Ravenswood Winery Belloni Vineyard - Barrel Sample, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $35
2010 Ravenswood Winery Barricia Vineyard - Barrel Sample, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $35
2009 Ridge Vineyards Lytton Estate, California Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $30
2009 Rock Wall Wine Company St. Peter's Church Vineyard, , Sonoma. $40
2009 Tin Barn Vineyards Chamisal Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $28
2009 Turley Vineyards Dogtown Vineyard, California Lodi, Central Valley. $38
2008 Valdez Family Vinyards Landy Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $38
2008 Valdez Family Vinyards Botticelli Vineyard, Rockpile, Sonoma. $42

WINES WITH A SCORE BETWEEN 8.5 AND 9
2008 Acorn Winery Heritage Vines Field Blend, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $35
2010 Acorn Winery Heritage Vines Field Blend - Barrel Sample, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. ??
2009 Ballantine Block 9 Reserve, Napa. $28
2010 Brown Estate Chaos Theory Red Blend, Chiles Valley, Napa. $40
2010 Brown Estate Rosemary's Block, Chiles Valley, Napa. $55
2008 Bucklin Mixed Blacks, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $??
2009 Charter Oak Roberto Fanucci Vineyard, Napa. $42
2010 Cline Ancient Vines ,. $18
2007 D-Cubed Cellars, Howell Mountain, Napa.
2007 D-Cubed Cellars Brown Vineyard, Chiles Valley, Napa. $40
2008 D-Cubed Cellars, , Napa. $27
2009 Easton Wines Estate Vineyard, Shenandoah Valley, Sierra Foothills. $32
2009 Fontanella Family Winery, Napa Valley, Napa. $36
2010 Hartford Family Winery Old Vine Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $35
2009 Kokomo Mounts Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $28
2010 Kokomo Timber Crest Vineyard Primitivo, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $32
2010 Mauritson, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $29
2010 Mauritson Rockpile Ridge, Rockpile, Sonoma. $39
2010 Novy, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $20
2009 Ottomino Rancho Bello Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $28
2009 Ottomino Estate Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $28
2010 Ottomino Biglieri Vineyard - Barrel Sample, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $32
2009 Ridge Vineyards Carmichael Ranch, California, Sonoma. $28
2010 Ridge Vineyards Paso Robles - Dusi Ranch, California San Luis Obispo, Central Coast. $30
2010 Ridge Vineyards East Bench, California Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $28
2009 Rock Wall Wine Company Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $40
2010 Rock Wall Wine Company Obsidian Red Blend, North Coast. $20
2009 Rosenblum Cellars Annete's, Redwood Valley. $40
2009 Rosenblum Cellars Maggie's Reserve, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $40
2008 Storrs Winery, , Central Coast. $23
2008 T-Vine Winery, , Napa. $32
2009 T-Vine Winery Frediani Vineyard, Calistoga, Napa. $42
2009 T-Vine Winery Mixed Blacks Red Blend, Napa. $42
2009 Tin Barn Vineyards, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $27
2007 Woodenhead Guido Venturi Vineyard, , Mendocino. $35

WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 8.5
2007 Ballantine Block 11, Napa. $25
2009 Beekeeper Wines Madrone Spring Vineyard, Rockpile, Sonoma. $60
2010 Brown Estate, Chiles Valley, Napa. $40
2009 Chateau Montelena, , Napa. $??
2010 Cline, , Sonoma. $28
2009 Cypher Dusi Ranch, Paso Robles, Central Coast. $32
2010 Deep Purple, Lodi, Central Valley. $12
2009 Dry Creek Vineyard Heritage, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $??
2009 Easton Wines, Fiddletown, Sierra Foothills. $22
2010 Easton Wines, Amador, Sierra Foothills. $17
2009 Federalist Dueling Pistols, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $??
2009 Four Vines Anarchy Red Blend, Paso Robles, Central Coast. $40
2009 Fritz Winery, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $18
2009 Gamba Family Winery Family Ranches, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $35
2009 Hendry Block 28, Napa. $35
2009 Hendry HRW, Napa. $35
2009 J Dusi Vineyards, Paso Robles, Central Coast. $??
2008 J. Rickards Ancestor, Sonoma. $22
2009 Klinker Brick Old Vine, Lodi, Central Valley. $18
2006 Mara Wines Luvisi Vineyard, Napa. $39
2007 Mara Wines M, Sonoma. $49
2010 Mauritson West Fall Ranch, Rockpile, Sonoma. $37
2010 Ridge Vineyards Lytton Estate - Barrel Sample, California Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $28
2010 Ridge Vineyards Carmichael Ranch, California, Sonoma. $30
2009 Rock Wall Wine Company West Fall Ranch, Rockpile, Sonoma. $40
2009 Rock Wall Wine Company, , Sonoma County. $25
2009 Rock Wall Wine Company Stagecoach vineyard, Napa. $40
2009 Rock Wall Wine Company Jessie's Vineyard, Contra Costa County. $28
2009 Rosenblum Cellars Harris Kratka Vineyard, Alexander Valley, Sonoma. $30
2009 Rosenblum Cellars Monte Rosso Vineyard, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $45
2009 T-Vine Winery, , Napa. $32
2008 Vino Noceto OGP Original Grandpere Vineyard, Shenendoah Valley, Sierra Foothills. $??
2009 Woodenhead Guido Venturi Vineyard, , Mendocino. $34

WINES WITH A SCORE BETWEEN 8 AND 8.5
2009 Cline Heritage, Contra Costa County. $38
2010 Cline Live Oak Vineyard, Contra Costa County. $32
2009 Cypher Preston Vineyard, Paso Robles, Central Coast. $32
2008 J. Rickards Old Vine, Sonoma. $28
2009 Jerome Cellars Colored Soldier, Arizona. $27
2006 Mara Wines Dolinsek Ranch, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $39
2010 Miro Grist Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $??
2009 Rosenblum Cellars Carla's Reserve, Contra Costa County. $35
2010 Rosenblum Cellars Monte Rosso Vineyard - Barrel Sample, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $45
2010 Rosenblum Cellars Maggies Reserve - Barrel Sample, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma. $40

WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 8
2007 Collier Falls, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $??
2009 Headbanger, , Sonoma County. $??
2009 Jerome Cellars Grandpa, Arizona. $27
2008 McCay Cellars Paisley Vineyard, Lodi, Central Valley. $28
2008 McCay Cellars, Russian River Valley, Sonoma. $28
2008 McCay Cellars Equity Vineyard, Lodi, Central Valley. $24
2009 Rosenblum Cellars Rockpile Road, Rockpile, Sonoma. $30

WINES WITH A SCORE BETWEEN 7.5 AND 8
2010 Cline, California. $12
2009 McCay Cellars Jupiter Vineyard, Lodi, Central Valley. $28

WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 7.5
2009 Rombauer, , Napa. $??
2009 Rued Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. $25

WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 7
2007 Chatom Vineyard, Calaveras County, Sierra Foothills. $??
2005 Jerome Cellars Black and White Soldier, Arizona. $28
2010 Predator Winery Old Vine, Lodi, Central Valley. $??

WINES WITH A SCORE AROUND 6
2007 Gann Family Cellars, Alexander Valley, Sonoma. $??

Bright Zinfandel
ALEXANDER VALLEY, CA: A brightly backlit zinfandel grape leaf turns vivid red in Autumn in Sonoma County. I've got Zinfandel on the brain this week thanks to the ZAP festival.

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Ordinary wine consumers may want to skip this post.

On occasion I write purely for the wine industry, and today I'd like to address the role of social media in the wine industry. Whenever I write these kinds of things, I like to remind people that by day I run a company called HYDRANT that gets paid a lot of money to help big brands be extremely successful marketing, selling, and engaging with their customers online. In short, what follows below isn't just random opinion.

Let's be clear, first, what I mean by social media, a phrase that has become widely used but perhaps not fully understood by everyone who uses it. Social media are those channels of interaction on the internet where the public has a voice. Any outlet at which an ordinary person, free of charge, can say something, create a piece of content, react to something that someone else has created, or establish relationships with people and companies falls under the banner of social media. This, of course includes blogs and Twitter, and social networking sites like Facebook, but also bulletin boards and forums, location based services like Foursquare, image posting services like Instagram, and several other esoteric services.

Of late there have been a number of blog conversations about what wineries should be doing, if anything, about social media. Fellow blogger Joe Roberts, of 1 Wine Dude, wrote a piece entitled "Where Can Wineries Really Innovate? In Engaging the People Who Actually Drink the Stuff!" in which he accurately describes many wineries' approach to social media as some combination of fear, scorn, exhaustion, or 'can't-be-bothered.'

Joe is correct to suggest that most wineries suffer from a deficit of consumer engagement in social media and are missing a huge opportunity as a result. This is nothing new, of course. The wine industry has been one of the slowest industries to adopt internet-based technologies, barely edging ahead of pawn shops, bowling alleys, and dry cleaners in having web sites, e-mail addresses, and actually using them both.

Even though those folks making wine are often farmers first, with little interest, and sometimes less ability than they might desire to engage with technology, that no longer justifies the lack of adoption that still plagues the wine industry. In an increasingly globalized world, where consumers are living, learning, connecting, and buying online, anyone who wants to sell a product in a competitive marketplace must be engaging their customers online.

As little as five years ago this wasn't true. But the world changes very quickly these days. The problem is, reality doesn't send you a memo before it changes. Just like it didn't send the people who made Rolodexes a note about their impending obsolescence. But you better believe that one day, the folks whose entire livelihood depended upon people buying rolodexes saw the writing on the wall. Perhaps just before they smacked right into it. Wineries that fail to comprehend the way the world is moving will quickly find their customers hanging out with someone else's bottle in hand.

And before you say (ahem, Steve Heimoff) that a great score from a critic can solve this problem, I urge you to look at the hundreds of deep discounting and flash sale outlets for wine, whose primary selling tools (for the bottles that wineries are shoving their way as fast as they can sell them) happen to be critics scores. If those scores were worth something, then wineries would be selling all their wines through traditional (read: non-closeout) channels, not funneling them to outlets where they're lucky to recoup their costs. Sure, a 98 point score from the Wine Advocate will sell more wine than some outreach on Twitter, but this is the exception that proves the rule. If I had a dollar for every 94 point rated wine I've seen selling at 50% off its retail price in the last year, I could buy a case of Chateau Lafite.

For most wineries, points don't sell wines, relationships do. Relationships with people, and relationships with brands. In that way, nothing has changed, and nothing ever will. This is the way that marketing works. But the relationships that customers have with both people and brands are overwhelmingly shifting to social media, and this goes for wine as well. It may just not feel that way to most wineries yet, in the same way that the folks selling Rolodexes thought everything was perfectly fine in the few days before the Palm Pilot (or whatever electronic PDA-thing truly rang the death knell of a six pound barrel of business cards) hit the shelves.

Which brings me to something called Vintank Social Connect. I spent a little time this afternoon getting a tour of this free web application that is now in its second or third incarnation, and I have this simple thing to say about it.

Are you listening wine industry?

Any winery in the world that does not have a free account on this service, and does not spend at least an hour or two every week using it, is dumber than a bag of hammers.

Vintank's software offers wineries an incredibly sophisticated set of tools to monitor their brand presence in the sphere of social media, and to engage with their customers in this space.

The fact that this tool is available for free (and, says its provider, will always be free) is simply staggering. It may well be the single greatest gift that anyone has given the wine industry since the invention of the steel fermentation tank. I'm not kidding.

Outside the wine industry (i.e. many of my Fortune 1000 customers) pay thousands of dollars every month (gladly) for the kind of functionality that Vintank is offering every winery in the world for free. Forever.

So, what does it do?

Well, just imagine that there's this huge nightclub, that can fit hundreds of thousands, even millions, of people in it, and regularly does, night after night. And the only way anyone gets into this nightclub is if they can prove to the bouncer at the door that they enjoy and drink wine. Not so hard to do, right? OK. And then once they're in, they can buy, drink, and talk with their friends about any wine in the world. Man, I want to go already, don't you?. And then imagine every single one of those conversations they have, every comment they make, every joke they tell, every story they relate, is recorded and transcribed. And then magically, you get to read every single one of them that mentions you.

Wouldn't you want to do that? Wouldn't you want to know what people are saying about you and your brand(s)? Wouldn't you be at all curious about whether people actually recommended your wines, or tweeted to their friends how much they sucked? Or want to know when a blogger reviewed your wine, or when someone complained on a wine bulletin board about an unusually high percentage of cork tainted bottles in their annual allocation?

If you answered no to those questions, then I can promise you that you will one day reap the bitter harvest of your own ignorance. If you answered yes, then you're thirty seconds and a free online account away from having the answers to all of them.

Vintank's Social Connect software mines millions upon millions of conversations about wine that take place in the social media sphere, and reports to you what people are saying about you and your products. It tells you who is saying it, where they said it, and helps you understand how influential those people might be. Simple as that.

It does a lot more, for those who want to dive into the world of Customer Relationship Marketing, but for many wineries, that may be leaping into the deep end of the pool too quickly. For most, it's enough to be able to see what people are saying about you, and to respond. And that would be a huge leap forward for most wineries. A leap they desperately need to make.

I have no relationship to the company Vintank, nor anything to gain by making this recommendation, other than a desire to prod the wine industry to make use of technology trends that many other industries are embracing, and profiting from, much more rapidly.

Facebook will have its IPO in the coming months. As part of its filing, it had to disclose its financials for the first time, which included $1 billion of yearly profit, representing a net margin of around 30%. That is but a tiny slice of the value that social media is producing in today's economy. Hundreds of businesses, some of them worth billions of dollars, have sprung up solely because of the functionality that Facebook has provided to the world.

It's time for the wine industry to stop treating social media like a newfangled gizmo, and start doing business with it.

Sunrise image courtesy of BigStock.

I've referred to it in the past as "the beast." Possessing tannins that need to be tamed through intelligent winemaking, Petite Sirah can truly be a monster of a wine. One of the least-well-known red grape varieties that are commonly grown in California, it does not command legions of rabid followers like those who attended last week's ZAP Zinfandel festival, or the loyal drinkers of Cabernet, or even those who swear by Syrah, from which it takes its misleading name. In the right hands, however, Petite Sirah can be a stunning wine -- deep, resonant, and rich.

Petite Sirah has been grown in California for a long time, but apart from some limited success in the 1970s at the hands of Carl Doumani and Stags' Leap Winery, wines made exclusively from this grape variety never really earned the respect or attention of mainstream wine lovers in any significant way.

Yet producers all over the state continue, quietly, to make Petite Sirahs, and many have no trouble selling them at all to an equally quiet, but passionate following of wine lovers.

And occasionally these producers not so quietly serve up their wines with roast meats and chocolate for anyone who dares drink on the dark side, if you'll pardon the expression. The next opportunity you have to sample their wares will be Friday, February 17th, when the society of winegrowers and makers known as P.S. I Love You holds its annual tasting at The Rock Wall Wine Company in Alameda.

Go check it out. Who knows, perhaps you'll fall in love too. The event web site has a list of the wineries pouring this year as well as a list of the tasty treats that await you in addition to wine.

P.S. I Love You Dark and Delicious Tasting
February 17th, 2012
6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
The Rock Wall Wine Company
2301 Monarch Street
Alameda, CA 94501 (map)

Tickets are $63 per person and in the past they have sold out. If available, tickets will be sold at the door for more than that. They should be purchased in advance online.

My usual recommendations for such public tastings apply. Wear dark clothes; arrive well slept and with food in your stomach (or chow down when you first get there); drink lots of water; and SPIT if you want to actually learn anything and enjoy yourself. These are big wines, often high in alcohol.

Sprung from the legendary blood of forbidden lovers suffering the wrath of a father king, slender jungle orchids climb skyward, their fruit bearing heavenly scents. The Aztecs demanded tlilxochitl, this black gold, in tribute after conquering the tribes who first unlocked vanilla's secrets. As intense as it is ethereal, vanilla possesses a singular, breathtaking purity of aroma. Barrels imbue wine with much of the vanilla we taste. Their singed oak can offer up an echo of flowers in ancient forests, or deeper notes of caramel and butterscotch. Sometimes floating above the wine's fruit, sometimes wrapped around it, and sometimes welded awkwardly to a woody frame, vanilla's elemental allure is hard to ignore and easy to love.

Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa, California
Henschke "Louis" Semillon, Eden Valley, Australia
Château de la Maltroye Chassagne-Montrachet, Côte de Beaune, Burgundy, France
Jean Macle Vin Jaune Château-Chalon, Jura, France
Cantina Giardino "Sophia" Blanco, Campania, Italy
Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana Oloroso Viejo Sherry, Andalusia, Spain


This is part of an ongoing series of original images and prose called The Essence of Wine

Some of the big news last week in the wine world had to do with the shifting buying habits of our friends Down Under. Thanks to the vagaries of the international currency markets, the Australian Dollar has appreciated greatly against the Euro, and for the first time since the Euro was launched, stuff from Europe is pretty cheap in Australia.

So, what does a wine loving country like Australia (they consume about three times as much wine per capita as America) do when imports get cheap? They stop buying Australian wine all the time and they start buying imported wine.

Much was made in news reports of the fact that Australians can now buy Moet Chandon Champagne for less money than they'd spend on locally produced Chandon sparkling wine (made by the same company).

While this news probably went over like a wet blanket for most wine producers in Australia, it's hard to imagine how this could have been avoided. For decades, Australian's have largely been drinking locally produced wines, both as a measure of pride as well as economic convenience. No doubt the (well placed) pride will continue to drive sales, as will old habits that die hard, but Australians need to be forgiven if they have a bit of a kid-in-the-candy-store moment.

Frankly, this particular situation sheds some light on the possible future for America should the Euro Zone collapse, or any of its major wine producers drop the currency. Many people have speculated as to what the current European economic crisis means for wine, and for the time being, it simply means that business is tough for many European wine producers.

But should things get messy, we may see a lot more gleeful buying on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. As much as I will bite my lip at the turmoil that will doubtless ensue if Portugal, or Italy, or Greece are left to founder on their own, it's hard to imagine not getting a bit excited about the wines of these regions suddenly being available at much more reasonable prices thanks to currency differentials.

Now I'm no economist, so the last thing I'm doing here is making predictions, but I can definitely relate to my friends Down Under who are taking not a small amount of delight in the fact that their money goes a lot further in European wine than it used to.

Photo of Australian currency courtesy of BigStock.

As a wine reviewer who gets paid next to nothing for his work, I have the luxury of only reviewing wines that I think are worth writing about. I've got no deadlines, no quotas to fill, and no obligation to anyone. All of which means that it's always a great pleasure to say nice things about a wine or wines that I enjoy.

But this is perhaps the most pleasurable kind of review I write. The review of a winery whose wines I can safely say are all spectacularly good -- so good that I will simply buy any wine they make, no questions asked. I'm on very few winery mailing lists, but this is one of them.

In many ways Peay Vineyards represents the quintessential family-run, boutique California winery. Run by brothers Nick and Andy Peay and their winemaker Vanessa Wong (who happens to be Nick's wife) they perfectly embody the care, attention to detail, and vision that marks all the best small wineries in the world.

Coming upon the 100-year-old house perched high on a ridge above Sea Ranch in the far north of Sonoma County, with its vines cascading down the hillside towards the ocean four miles away, you might imagine that the two thirty-somethings sitting on the porch were the latest in a long line of farmers who had worked this land. But before Nick and Andy bought the 80-acre property in 1996, it merely bore the faint traces of a few fruit trees and sheep that once roamed its chilly pastures.

Nick Peay got the wine and food bug early, and after college he headed straight into a career in the wine industry, working first for Schramsberg and then La Jota, before heading for U.C. Davis where he got a degree in Enology and Viticulture. After graduating he moved on to work for Newton and Storrs, and began plotting to convince his brother Andy to help him start a winery one day.

Apparently all it took was a really nice bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and a rack of lamb at the right moment, just as Andy Peay was rethinking his likely future as a Wall Street analyst. After taking a year off to travel, Andy dove into the wine and hospitality world, working a harvest at Cain Vineyards and Winery, spending some time working at the Jug Shop in San Francisco, and all the while getting his MBA from Berkeley.

On the weekends, the brothers would hop into a truck and cruise the back roads of California wine regions looking for the perfect piece of land. Their criteria: an extreme, cool-climate vineyard site where they could push the limits of winegrowing and winemaking, utilizing Nick's knowledge of viticulture, and his wife Vanessa's skill at making wines from cool climate fruit.

Vanessa Wong is also U.C. Davis trained and before joining her husband for the first harvest in 2001 she spent several years working as a winemaker around the world for labels that include Château Lafite-Rothschild in Bordeaux, Domaine Jean Gros Burgundy, and Peter Michael Winery in Sonoma.

The family planted 48 acres of vines on their property in 1998: 35 acres of Pinot Noir, 8 acres of Syrah, 6 acres of Chardonnay, 1.8 acres of Viognier, and two little postage stamp size plots of Roussanne and Marsanne. The vineyards are managed directly by Nick and a full-time crew of 8 vineyard workers, and are farmed organically (though they are not certified). Because of the remoteness of the vineyard, the winery was built in Cloverdale, about an hour away.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Peay Vineyards for me has always been how they seem to have gotten everything right. I'm sure there were missteps along the way, but the fact that they were able to strike out into the middle of nowhere, into a climate that many thought unfit to grow wine grapes, and not only manage to make wine, but to make wine of such distinct character and quality is a testament to the talents of everyone involved. It's not an accident that theirs is one of the coolest Syrah vineyards in the United States.

Vanessa crafts their wines with a delicate touch. The wines are almost always fermented with native yeasts and are carefully managed through the winemaking process according to the needs of each varietal. The oak program involves a minimum of new wood allowing the fruit to shine, and the wines are almost always bottled unfined and unfiltered.

This particular wine comes from those minuscule .6 acres of Roussanne and Marsanne that Nick describes as the "most trying vines we farm." Finicky, temperamental, and susceptible to the vagaries of weather much more so than other grapes (this wine won't be made in 2011, thanks to the rains), these vines yield tiny amounts of extraordinary fruit. The production hovers somewhere between three and six barrels each year (roughly 85-100 cases), and tends to be snapped up by the winery's mailing list customers (the only way I manage to get ahold of it).

Fermented in old oak barrels with indigenous yeasts, this wine ages in neutral oak on its lees (bits of the skins and yeast left over after fermentation) for 11 months before bottling. In 2006, the wine was 65% Roussanne and 35% Marsanne, and only 85 cases were made.

I tend to like what happens to Roussanne and Marsanne as they age, so I've been hanging on to this bottle for some time, and decided to pop it open with dinner this week, and was very happy to have done so. It's a beautiful wine that is both delicious when it is first released, but will reward anyone with the patience to leave it on the shelf for a few years.

Tasting Notes:
This wine has mellowed to a deep medium-gold in the glass, and smells of honey roasted nuts, jasmine flowers, and old parchment. In the mouth it has a wonderful weight on the tongue, with a mix of mineral and herbal flavors like chamomile, while roasted apple, butterscotch, and honey also play across the palate. The finish has a nutty quality, and lingers for some time. Despite having a little weight, the wine's acidity ensures that it is lively and gulpable. Excellent. 14.1% alcohol.

Food Pairing:
This was surprisingly a very good match with a bunch of salumi and mostardas that were on the table while we opened this bottle.

Overall Score: between 9 and 9.5

How Much?: $44

Unfortunately this wine is not available for purchase on the Internet, and this vintage has probably long since disappeared from most people's shelves and cellars. Current vintages are available to mailing list customers only.

If there is one public wine tasting event that rivals San Francisco's yearly ZAP Zinfandel tasting for sheer size and chaos, it could only be the annual SF Chronicle Wine Competition Tasting. Every year this competition is judged by more than 60 wine professionals, in which they award medals to their top choices from among over 5,000 wines from all across America. This competition has grown over the last ten years to be the largest competitive tasting of American wines in the world.

The judges hand out hundreds of medals and awards. Those awards are released to the public, and then about a month later, many of the award winning wines, plus a lot more are poured for the public in a four-hour event that takes over Fort Mason for a Saturday afternoon. There are usually cooking demonstrations and food booths, and various other diversions.

Regardless of how I feel about such wine competitions, this tasting, like all such public events, represents an incredible opportunity to educate your palate and discover new wines to enjoy. This tasting in particular offers a unique chance to taste wine from a lot of less well known wine regions (i.e. not California, Oregon, or Washington) in addition to hundreds of wines from the places that most people know and love.

So if you don't have plans February 18th and want to expand your wine horizons, the experience is well worth the price of admission.

2012 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition Public Tasting
Saturday, February 18, 2012 2pm - 5pm
Festival Pavilion - Fort Mason Center
Marina Boulevard, San Francisco, CA 94123 (map)

Tickets are $65 if purchased in advance, $80 at the door. You can purchase tickets online.

My usual tips for large public tastings: get a good night's sleep; go with food in your belly; wear dark clothes; leave the cologne or perfume at home; drink lots of water; and if you want to really enjoy yourself, SPIT!

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I'm sure I'm going to catch hell for this post from any number of quarters, but it needs to be said.

Big wine companies are favorite punching bags for wine lovers that would never buy their products. Sometime's there's a good reason for this, like when they throw their weight around in the marketplace in ways that aren't exactly good for the industry. The bigger the company, the bigger the mistakes they can make as well.

When they make mistakes, sometimes these companies can be hung out to dry simply because they have deep pockets. And that's exactly what seems to have just happened to Gallo and Constellation Wines .

You may remember a bit of a scandal last year involving these two big players in the wine world. They bought a bunch (3.5 million gallons) of wine from the southern part of France that was supposed to be Pinot Noir and put it into their Red Bicyclette bottles. It turns out, however, that it was only partly Pinot Noir, and happened to contain a lot of Merlot and Syrah as well.

The wines were fraudulently sold by a number of parties in France, all of whom have been prosecuted under French law, even on appeal.

The incident was a severe embarrassment for Gallo in particular, who apparently thought they were buying legitimate Pinot Noir. There are tests, usually involving DNA sequencing, that can determine the grape variety of a wine, but they are very expensive, time consuming, and aren't normally used in the course of, say, buying a few thousand gallons of bulk wine.

Gallo and Constellation took the steps that you would have expected a company to take when faced with this situation. They pulled whatever product they could off the market, apologized, and cooperated with the authorities that were going after the folks who perpetrated this fraud.

But then three wine consumers in California sued Gallo and Constellation, along with two of the guilty parties in France, alleging "unfair competition, fraud and false advertising." Now Gallo and Constellation are paying these people and their lawyers $2 million to settle the case out of court.

We hear various politicians talking about "tort reform" in this country, and stupid lawsuits like this are exactly what they're talking about.

These consumers were in no way damaged or harmed by the fact that the wine they purchased wasn't 100% Pinot Noir. The suggestion that competition or the market as a whole suffered as a result is equally specious. Gallo and Constellation certainly made a mistake by buying the wine they did, but it should not result in paying litigation happy consumers who thought they could make a buck by going after a big wine company with deep pockets.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for consumer protection. If Gallo had failed to disclose that it put peanuts in its wine, and some allergic person died of anaphylactic shock, Gallo should be held responsible. If the wine they sold wasn't actually wine, but was some concocted fake beverage that they synthesized in a lab, then I think there would be grounds for fake advertising claims, like in the 80s when all those "juice" companies were forced to put just how much real fruit juice they were using on their packages.

Those who generally disdain companies like Gallo, will at this point no doubt be shouting at their screens "They knew! They knew," but I don't think that's true. To my knowledge there is not a shred of proof that Gallo or Constellation knew that they were buying adulterated Pinot (which, admittedly says something about the quality of the wine that goes into their bottles). Now, if for some reason it came to light that Gallo and Constellation knew exactly what they were doing, that would change things slightly (i.e. intent to defraud versus an accident) but ultimately the issue is the same: these folks are being wrung for dollars because they did by accident that many winemakers in California do on purpose all the time.

By law in California, in order to call a wine Cabernet Sauvignon and put it on the label, only 75% of the wine has to be Cabernet Sauvignon (and only 95% of it has to come from the same vintage). The rest can be whatever the winemaker wants. And if you think that those $3, $5, and $7 wines you're buying at the grocery store are 100% pure, I've got a bridge to sell you.

Most large (read: non-artisan) winemakers manage their production at some level using the bulk wine market, purchasing juice here and there both to ensure that they can produce the volume they need to meet their targets, as well as to find blending components they think can help them make a more appealing wine. Even smaller winemakers will buy some extra grapes or even some extra wine that allows them to turn a few extra barrels of something into a second label wine or a special bottling. Why? So they can sell it. Remember folks, the wine industry is a business, first and foremost.

So while I'm no apologist for the behemoths of the global wine trade, I certainly am appalled at the fact that our legal system not only permits, but tacitly encourages the kind of lawsuits that these companies have been needlessly subjected to.

I'm sure that in the future I'll be criticizing Gallo and Constellation for something, but for today they have my sympathies.

Punching bag image courtesy of BigStock