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Event Notes:  ZAP Tasting, 1/29/00 at Fort Mason, SF, 2-5 pm

TWITS IN EVIDENCE
At least ten Pompous Twits (and perhaps thousands of pompous twits) were seen at Saturday's ZAP tasting at Fort Mason.

Susan, Dave and I went as a group and took the shuttle from the middle school over to Fort Mason.  At 1:30 pm, the line was all the way back to the entrance, where security was turning back cars.  Mike and Linda Kemp joined us in line.

Greeting us at the door and taking our tickets were Jerry and Carol Rose, looking very official and properly festive in their red ZAP aprons!  Inside, we ran into Bryan and Lisa Gros, and Bob Atkinson was spotted at the Ravenswood booth (Bob reported that Karleta was around, but the crowds were THICK this year and I didn't see her).  Paul Marshall was seen at the exit guarding ZAP logo glasses and making sure that people weren't leaving with anything that didn't belong to them.

My apologies if other Twits were present who are not mentioned here. Note that many of the opinions stated herein belong to Susan, Dave and myself... other Twits may have other views!

See Pictures HERE

THE EVENT ITSELF
Speaking of crowds, I have to say that the overall experience was one of having to employ EXTREME amounts of patience.  There are some things that the ZAP coordinators might address, but there is an overriding problem of people who stay to chat with the pourers with their glasses full of wine.  What is the proper procedure if a winery is pouring more than one wine?  Get some and move to the back of the line!  We did this in every case, except in the case of Ridge (they and Ravenswood had the largest booths at the event, and also the longest lines). 

Ridge made the mistake of having a sign that said "START HERE" at one end, but this would have been impossible.  There were eight or ten lines of people, all of them not moving because some people figured that once they reached the booth, that they weren't moving until they'd tasted all six or eight offerings that Ridge was pouring.  The pourers should be instructed to pour and send people away.  Yes, that means that they have to get back in line... but they have Zin in their glasses and overall it would mean that more people could enjoy more wine in less time.  So yes, I'm bitching about rude people.  I very nearly yanked a few people by the collar, and did speak sharply to one guy who had elbowed his way to the dump bucket to dump two drops of wine and then hold out his glass for more.  I said, simply, "In most countries, that is considered cutting in line."  When he said "Oh, I didn't realize," I was tempted to give him a great pain in his instep.  We got two different wines between the three of us and didn't bother getting back into the line that wasn't moving.

All of that said, I do think ZAP could do more about laying down some ground rules for both Advocates and Producers... but I will address those issues with ZAP.  Soon.  Events of this magnitude require some guidelines for everyone involved.  The situation at many booths was simply intolerable.  Overall, we had a good time, but it could have been even better!

THE WINES  (Maybe not "Two-Thou-ZIN," but a LOT!)
Needless to say, with 218 wineries represented, there were more wines being poured than could be listed here, let alone tasted.  At least one new winery (Acorn) had an excellent barrel offering, but at $25+ for futures, were overpriced.  Saddleback Cellars's current (1997) release is also excellent, but their barrel sample fell short of expectations and didn't measure up to their previous releases.

Ridge and Ravenswood had good wines, as always.  Ravenswood made every effort to ensure that people were served quickly by having a "roving pourer" outside the booth, pouring their Teldeschi vineyard zinfandel for those in line.  A very nice zin, and (in my opinion) much better than the acidic monsters produced by Ron Teldeschi (the vineyard owner's brother) at the winery by the same name in the Dry Creek area.  On the other hand, their Monte Rossi vineyard zin was not as fruity nor as full-bodied as in previous years.

We all tasted zins that were terrible to our palates, and many that were excellent.  Trying to find bargains on good-to-great zins is becoming more and more difficult as the varietal gains popularity.  Some wineries were offering ZAP event discounts.  Chateau Potelle had a nice zin, but even their $15.75 price seemed a bit high (marked down from $24, which was ridiculous).  Peachy Canyon's Dusi Ranch zinfandel was one of the best wines we tasted, but that too is in the near-$30 price range.

CAUTION!  EDITORIAL FOLLOWS
The dilemma, as I see it, is that if we (the consumers) pay these high prices for zinfandel even when the wineries are citing poor or damaged crops, low yields, unavailability of good fruit, etc., then it is unlikely that the prices will ever come back down.  On the other hand, if no one buys zinfandel because of the prices, the industry has this nasty habit of ripping out entire vineyards of good grapes to make room for more profitable varietals.  As evidence, look at what happened to some of the "lesser" varietal vineyards of muscat, malvasia bianca, mourvedre and others that were razed to make room for more chardonnay and merlot, the darlings of the newer wine drinking crowd.  Not that I have anything against chardonnay or merlot... both can be outstanding.  But without variety, our pastime gets to be a lot less interesting.

Course of action?  No idea what's best all around.  Perhaps if we, the buying public, buy more of the lower and moderately priced zinfandels, it will help send a message to the controllers of these wineries that the bigger profits result from those wines and not the high-priced ones.

Maybe.  Other ideas about this are welcomed!

-- Tom Regner (with input from Dave Hulet & Susan Mountain)