TN: NV Beringer White Zinfandel

WINE TALK
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Whether something is really bad is also subjective. Franzia isn’t really bad if you like similar wine and are looking to get plastered. But it’s swill. It’s garbage wine with residual sugar, poor grapes, industrial wine making, etc. It may not be faulty, but it’s not good. I feel the same way about Beringer White Zinfandel. I cannot think of any instance where it would be a wine I’d choose to drink, and I’ve had it, Sutter Home’s version, Barefoot’s version, Sutter Home’s White Cab, all out of morbid curiosity at various parties and at folks’ houses while they made sangria (in which it is not a bad ingredient).

I’d rather make Sangria out of it or just drink beer. Finding other wines that are worse is no praise of this wine. If the good is the enemy of the great, the undrinkable is the enemy of the really-terrible, which is where BWZ falls for me. I’d honestly rather just embrace it and slam a Boone’s Farm Mountain Berry.

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I picked up a case from an Acker auction a few years ago. Gil Lempert-Schwartz said it was the most beautiful cardboard box he’d ever seen, according to the auction catalog.

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Two other things to add:

  1. Storybook Mountain does a very pretty Zin Gris from Napa fruit. It used to be mainly kept at the winery, but they have released some to the public, too.
  2. Buehler makes a “high-end” White Zin, I believe primarily for restaurants that want something a little better than Beringer, Sutter Home, et al. It is less mediocre.
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I would never introduce White Zin to my Zaltos; might get struck down by lightning where I stand. [wink.gif]

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I’ve had a 2012 Turley White Zin. It was in a restaurant, so I don’t recall if it had a vineyard name on it, but it was very good.