ZAP event

[Botafogo]

More important than even the humanity, oh God...the humanity is the fact that MOST of the wines are undrinkable. Dan Berger went OFF last week about this, check out:

http://www.napanews.com/templates/index.cfm?template=story_full&id=B959100D-7923-4E21-AB67-E96F2A960AF8

to get an earfull. Here is the gist:

"Curiously, despite the passions of the huge crowd for this grape, I believe zinfandel no longer is one of the most engaging wines on the shelf. As I looked out over the teeming mass of folks queueing up for yet another sip of this stuff, I was amazed so many liked this grape in the manner it's now being made.

I realized how utterly bored with it I am. And the reason is: the stuff is too big, too high in alcohol, too Port-like. For the most part, I believe, few producers have the courage to make it with the balance it once offered and allow it to work with food. I figure that table wine, the stuff we serve with our meals, should have about 11 percent to 13.5 percent alcohol. When the alcohol reaches levels it has in zinfandel these days, of 15 percent and up, and some up there in the 17 percent-plus range, my mouth starts to tire after a single sip.

Moreover, I do not like table wines that smell like oak-flavored high-proof. Port is for after-dinner sipping with cheese, not trying to mate with a slab of beef or lamb. The latter foods work perfectly well with a cabernet or a Bordeaux, or even a barbera, a Chianti or a Rioja.

These days, zin has become a parody of itself. Once a rakish and fresh-faced youth with a sprightly nature, it now has become a brooding, boorish oaf with about the same grace as a 250-pound ballerina. Today, instead of cavorting toward the dinner table, it staggers toward the gutter."

Amen! Roberto



[This message has been edited by Botafogo (edited 02-17-2002).]