TN: NV Beringer White Zinfandel

[Mark_B]

What are the odds of that white zinfandel actually containing zinfandel?

Seeing as how it’s non vintage, I’m guessing it contains the lowest percentage of Zinfandel that California law will accept.

[ChrisU]

The Turley White Zin comes from their estate vineyard in St Helena. Can’t remember the retail on the estate Zin, but significantly more than the white Zin.

[Brent_C_l_a_y_t_o_n]

Well I know Tex came across a bottle of the hallowed 1997 vintage Beringer White Zin this weekend and I think the TN included adjectives like,‘explosive, dense, layered and complex.’ .

[Craig_G]

@Brent C l a y t o n

Well I know Tex came across a bottle of the hallowed 1997 vintage Beringer White Zin this weekend and I think the TN included adjectives like,‘explosive, dense, layered and complex.’ .

“I was taken aback by my friends’ explosive response when they tasted my wine. ‘How could you be so dense as to serve this?’ they asked. Then they layered me with insults, leaving me with an inferiority complex.”

[Dusty_Gillson]

@Bob Hunnicutt

Well, they sell a trillion cases of that shit a year to somebody.

There are a lot of funny posts on here, but this one takes the cake and made me laugh out loud. I’m trying to picture exactly what a trillion cases of wine would look like, let alone fizzy pink sweet water. Thanks Bob.

[Chris_Seiber]

@Craig Gleason

@Brent C l a y t o n

Well I know Tex came across a bottle of the hallowed 1997 vintage Beringer White Zin this weekend and I think the TN included adjectives like,‘explosive, dense, layered and complex.’ .

“I was taken aback by my friends’ explosive response when they tasted my wine. ‘How could you be so dense as to serve this?’ they asked. Then they layered me with insults, leaving me with an inferiority complex.”

Nicely played.

[Ken_V]

@Craig Gleason

Do you think this wine would have shown better had it not spent 30 years in a Chicago dungeon?

This. It is clear from the label that this is a very old bottle, probably not well stored. The fact that this harmed the wine shows it is real wine. A local Thai restaurant has the current version of this on their meager list and it goes pretty well. It is certainly better than the NV Bully Hill rose I recently gave 72 points to. I do a lot of grading for a living. On my scale, a 75 is a solid C and means it is competent in a basic way.

And don’t think I won’t give low scores. I was actually scolded by someone on CT for giving a wine a 55.

[Berry_Crawford]

@Larry P

it would be difficult to make a business case for pressing really good Zinfandel into a rosé

A rose is quicker to the market so it can help with cash flow for a small winery and it also takes up less storage space since it doesn’t need much aging.

[Brian_Tuite]

@Berry Crawford

@Larry P

it would be difficult to make a business case for pressing really good Zinfandel into a rosé

A rose is quicker to the market so it can help with cash flow for a small winery and it also takes up less storage space since it doesn’t need much aging.

Plus, if you buy it in magnum form, you can take it to wine geeks parties and raise their ire resulting in 2 WB threads, a poll and a rant!

[John_Morris]

@Brian Tuite

@Berry Crawford

@Larry P

it would be difficult to make a business case for pressing really good Zinfandel into a rosé

A rose is quicker to the market so it can help with cash flow for a small winery and it also takes up less storage space since it doesn’t need much aging.

Plus, if you buy it in magnum form, you can take it to wine geeks parties and raise their ire resulting in 2 WB threads, a poll and a rant!

[Berry_Crawford]

@Brian Tuite

@Berry Crawford

@Larry P

it would be difficult to make a business case for pressing really good Zinfandel into a rosé

A rose is quicker to the market so it can help with cash flow for a small winery and it also takes up less storage space since it doesn’t need much aging.

Plus, if you buy it in magnum form, you can take it to wine geeks parties and raise their ire resulting in 2 WB threads, a poll and a rant!

Exactly

[Bill_Tex_Landreth]

@Brent C l a y t o n

Well I know Tex came across a bottle of the hallowed 1997 vintage Beringer White Zin this weekend and I think the TN included adjectives like,‘explosive, dense, layered and complex.’ .

Still sitting on the shelf at Pappadeaux in Arlington, TX. Next time I go in, I will offer them $30 to see if I can try it. My guess it has been sitting there since the restaurant opened.

[John_Morris]

Then you can start a wiki page on pre-moxed white zins.

[Scott_Watkins]

Would have been much better in a Zalto and not decanted

[Chris_Seiber]

@Brian Tuite

@Berry Crawford

@Larry P

it would be difficult to make a business case for pressing really good Zinfandel into a rosé

A rose is quicker to the market so it can help with cash flow for a small winery and it also takes up less storage space since it doesn’t need much aging.

Plus, if you buy it in magnum form, you can take it to wine geeks parties and raise their ire resulting in 2 WB threads, a poll and a rant!

With a great wine like Beringer White Zinfandel, I prefer to phrase it “en magnum.”

[J_a_y_H_a_c_k]

• NV Beringer Vineyards White Zinfandel California - USA, California (7/1/2014)
  From Magnum. This is the famous bottle that launched 1000 insults on WineBerserkers. Brought by a guest to my home for a party on Saturday. Recorked that night after people drank one-third of it, quick chilled in the freezer tonight (Tuesday) and tasted with dinner of home made Chicken Sorrentino. No adverse evidence of three days of air. Palate is a mixture of sugar and strawberry. Tastes like very light strawberry soda with sugar. No really bad components like back palate bitterness, excessive hot alcohol, TCA, Brett or other fundamental flaws. Compared to the Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc someone else brought, this was better because that was affirmatively undesireable. This just has no positive characteristics. (73 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

[TomHill]

Hmmmm…hard to believe that nobody recalls the famed Turley Smoot-Hawley White Zin.
A legend in its time.
Tom

[K_John_Joseph]

I’ve tasted this wine recently, and I don’t think there’s anything at all wrong with it. Certainly, I didn’t detect anything negative like stinky feet or “stale grape skins” (not sure what that smells like, though). At 10.5% ABV, I certainly didn’t detect the slightest hint of alcohol burn. In fact, > I thought the wine was perfectly balanced > as almost all (probably all) mass-produced wines are these days. Yes, > I would want more acid> , but I’m not the target audience. And yes, > it’s simple, boring, and one-dimensional> , but that dimension is fairly pleasant strawberry and raspberry fruit with some residual sugar. Given the price, I can’t ask for more. I’ve tasted a lot of stuff from France and Italy that costs more and is equally boring, some of which is not even as sound as this.

Every defense of White Zin on this thread is laced with a conundrum. It’s good QPR…but it’s simple and sweet. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just a $6 wine that is a one note simpleton. It’s perfectly balanced, but needs more acid.

As absolutely no one says in Texas, “Cut the shit, y’all.”

I’ll sell you a can of pickle juice for a nickel. You can tell me how it’s just right for pickle juice, and all you could want for a nickel, and that other pickle juice costs more.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t total garbage. It’s the 49 cent cheeseburger from McDonalds. It’s not gourmet food. It’s not even a gourmet cheeseburger. It’s not even a good fast-food cheeseburger. It’s just cheap, marginally satisfying, and nicer than McDowell’s knock-off cheeseburger, or that kind you have to unwrap from the freezer and microwave.

It’s okay to call a spade a spade. Beringer White Zin is the McDonalds cheeseburger of the wine world. It’s made Beringer millions. They can’t sell it under a different name because everyone looks for Beringer White Zin and will pay a premium for it over Sutter Home (who has a white cab that’s even better!). By changing the name on the label Beringer would cut sales and margin by a huge amount. It’s a marketing issue, not a pride issue.

[Oliver_McCrum]

@Chris Seiber

I don’t understand wine economics, but Turley was selling a Zinfandel Rose from Napa Valley for under $20 and it was excellent. I don’t know what the quality of those zin grapes would have been for a still red.

There are good non-saignee roses of pinot noir, grenache, mourvedre and other grapes made in California for under $20. Again, I don’t know what the quality of those grapes would have been for red wine, but in any event, it seems possible for good producers to do it. I assume they’re not all loss leaders.

Some of my producers make rosé from their young vines, picked earlier than for red wine. Plus the cash flow is much better than red wine.

[DougS]

@K John Joseph

Every defense of White Zin on this thread is laced with a conundrum. It’s good QPR…but it’s simple and sweet. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just a $6 wine that is a one note simpleton. It’s perfectly balanced, but needs more acid.

As absolutely no one says in Texas, “Cut the shit, y’all.”

I said I would want more acid. The wine is perfectly balanced for their target audience. Balance is, after all, subjective. My point was that the original note made it sound like things are wrong with this wine, which isn’t the case when it’s fresh. It isn’t very good, but it isn’t very bad.