Price and Quality in California Zinfandels

Over the last few years Zinfandels have become some of our favorite wines. At their best they are super rich and complex. Loaded with an earthy, spiciness but balanced with a big ripe fruit flavor. But at their worst they are really, really bad. Lifeless, bitter with way too much alcohol. So, there's the rub. As with almost all wine, it's a crap shoot for most of us. Do we spend the money and risk getting a bad wine, or don't spend the money and risk getting a bad wine? This is what makes wine tasting so confounding!

So we decided to run a little test of our own. We walked into a wine store and bought three zins: Dutton Goldfield at $35, Seghesio at $17 and Bogel at $10. All of the wines had those little cards in front of them saying that such and such a publication had rated them excellent, in fact the Dutton Goldfield and the Seghesio had received ratings of 92, and the Bogel not far behind at 89. Here was our test. In a blind wine tasting could we find a correlation between price and quality? If both Dutton Goldfield and Seghesio achieved the same high rating, why pay the additional bucks?

In reverse order here are our choices - I hope you are sitting down. Thank goodness we were! To view the ViniCode™ in detail, please click on the image.

Third Place : Dutton Goldfield
Yep. We could not believe it. The smell was there. Big deep fruit, some coffee. But it had an annoying sharpness and seemed way too light. Especially when compared with the winner. We kept describing the wine as wimpy - and you should never call a California zin wimpy. They should be bold and in your face. So what was the problem? Why did it finish last? Well to be absolutely honest it tied with the second place wine. But even though the second place wine was somewhat simpler, it was also more enjoyable. But still, we were at a loss. We checked vintage charts. According to Wine Spectator, the 2002 vintage for zinfandel received an 86. Not great, but passable. That explained a lot. So why the price? If the wine is not that good why is it so expensive? In this case we looked at the back of the bottle. Only 8 barrels were produced of the 2002 vintage. So this wine is probably so pricey because there is so little of it. Boy are we glad we found this out now and not when it mattered. Rule of thumb number one : try a new wine in a fun tasting situation like this. Don't save an unknown for a big dinner party when a bad wine can adversely affect the whole meal.

Second Place : Bogel
The Bogel zin finished ahead of the Dutton Goldfield because, based on the simplicity of the wine, we weren't positive but we predicted it was the least expensive. Therefore we gave it props for price. And it also earned points for sip-ablilty. It was a pretty good sipper, simple but pleasant. But let's talk for a minute about simplicity. The best wines will have a certain complexity, in other words a lot going on. In the fermentation process many chemicals are produced which result in a plethora of smells and tastes that we associate with wine. Part of the enjoyment that we get out of wine tasting is trying to pinpoint flavors and smells. Clare and I use each other as sounding boards and love trying to outdo each other waxing poetic about our favorite wines. We didn't do much waxing over the Bogel, but for that matter it was not offensive either. In this case we got what we paid for.

First Place : Seghesio
What a pleasant surprise! It was not what we expected. We fully expected the Dutton to win. But this Seghesio was wonderful.  The taste was mellower than the other two, but so deep and rich. It had a zinfandel's characteristic spiciness (which falls under the earthy category), but was balanced with big, big fruit. And so smooth! I wrote at the bottom of my tasting sheet that this had to be the expensive one, it was so subtle and complex. It was also a mouthful. The wine had a lot of weight to it, but no alcohol burn. And the after taste was lingering and very pleasant. We really enjoyed this zinfandel. Have we ever had a better one? Yes (and it was a Dutton Goldfield!?!) but not tonight. And this brings us to our rule of thumb number two : at the wine shop, when faced with our final choice for this tasting, the wine expert suggested the Seghesio. So consult the experts. Often they know. And when you don't agree with their selection, let them know why. It will help on your next purchase.