White zin & similar

[Innkeeper]

The Buehler that WW mentions does not fall under the "usual" White Zins. It is lovely and you might want to try it. I can understand your sweet tooth. Most people going directly from soda pop to wine are attracted to the sweet ones initially.

Let me give you some history to give you some perspective on why wine geeks feel the way they do about White Zin. Several decades ago Zinfandel in its normal red stage was the most popular red wine in America. Its popularity causes many producers to do exactly what they are doing today with popular red wines; they kept making them bigger and bigger, meaning with more and more alcohol. Then Cabernet Sauvignon, in its then more modest modes took over from Zinfandel in popularity.

Sutter Home, seeing the resulting glut of Zinfandel on the market, bought it up; and produced, you guessed it, White Zinfandel. It was very sweet and became popular with people like you who were just getting into wine. Many other producers got on that band wagon.

Wine geeks, that is people who were used to drinking wines of all kinds were used to almost all of them being dry. Dry means low in alcohol and sugar. Even they would drink a sweet wine that was "supposed" to be sweet such as certain Rieslings and the Moscaoto that you mentioned. Both Riesling and Muscat grapes can be made into wines accross the sweetness spectrum from dry to cloying.

Hope all this helps you. IK