Unfiltered, Unfined

Regardless of nativity, it is clearly in California that Zinfandel has achieved its greatest variety of expression. Because Zinfandel continues to mature throughout the long growing season, Cali versions have characteristics all over the red wine map, from delicate, restrained berry elements to full-bore meatiness. Some even combine a bright raspberry nose with black plums and mushrooms on the palate, and most have sufficient acidity to pair well with a variety of dishes.

Over the course of a full year I write about a lot of wine-related topics…I also receive a lot of samples, and by far the majority of the hundreds of wines that I taste each month do not make it into my recommendations…The result of all this is that by the end of the year there are always more than a dozen wines I’ve recommended in Tweets and Facebook posts (BentheWineBerg on both sites) that haven’t made it into any of my columns or magazine articles. And there are even more memorable wines in my palate memory from 2009 that I haven’t had a chance to mention at all. This is quite a shame, because they’re really good wines. Thus what follows is my “List of Noteworthy Wines About Which I Haven’t Yet Written Much of Significance.”