A couple of weeks ago I hosted the Tex & Fritz Wine Club and the Vegas Wineaux Wine Club for a special night of appetizers, cheeses, and Opolo wines.  While my intentions were stellar, the proverbial “best laid plans” kind of kicked in.  My beautifully planned five-year vertical … well, let’s just say that I had a slight miscalculation.  Of about four years. Oops.

Let me explain.

According to CellarTracker, I had five years of Opolo Mtn. Zin, 2004-2008. Maybe not.

As it turns out, it appears that the Wineaux Guy and I had indulged at some time and I had been somewhat neglectful about keeping my CellarTracker holdings up to date.  I only had three of the five years:  2005, 2006, and 2008.  What to do?!?

Well, since I had invited all of these people over, I had had to do something!  So I broke out the Rhapsody (insert sounds of heavenly voices here). And, thankfully, I had a vertical!  Opolo Rhapsody – their Bordeaux blend – 2005, 2006, 2007. Whew.  And just for fun, I threw in a bottle of 2007 Opolo Remo Belli Zinfandel.

I’m not even going to pretend like I took notes.  It was a great and yummy night!  A night of Paso Robles rich red Zinfandels.  Along with the great food that everyone brought, a great tooth-staining time was had by all.

And, believe it or not, we did taste, and we voted on the wines.  Which one was the favorite (WOTN)?  Surprisingly, the Remo Belli Vineyard Zinfandel.

Actually, that’s not a big shock.  Every now and then Opolo will explore outside of their “usual’ wines and do something fascinating, and this Remo Belli is a great example of that. Thankfully, I still have one more bottle.

And, um, this time I checked.

So the wines were the following:

• 2005 Opolo Mountain Zinfandel
• 2006 Opolo Mountain Zinfandel
• 2008 Opolo Mountain Zinfandel
• 2007 Opolo Zinfandel – Remo Belli Vineyard (WOTN)
• 2005 Opolo Rhapsody
• 2006 Opolo Rhapsody
• 2007 Opolo Rhapsody

Why in the world would I make up something like White Zin in South Africa? Actually, it’s been around for a while.  But, as in many traumas that we experience in life, I had blanked it out of my memory.  A series of events over the last several weeks brought this dismal (my opinion) fact back to my consciousness, and I’m finally addressing it head on.

When the Wineaux Guy and I went to the Paso Robles Zin Fest last month, the one wine that we didn’t taste was the Zinfandel Rosé.  And it’s not because we turned up our respective noses to it; it’s because we just didn’t get to any of them in the crush (haha) of people and while tasting the wines of some fifty-plus wineries.  Even our livers are limited.

Being in the middle of all of that Zin and all of the followup postings reminded me of a South African wine writer who visited the United States some time ago and was enthralled with a new, slightly sweet, refreshing wine made from uniquely American grapes.  You guessed it. White Zinfandel. What? You didn’t hear my scream of anguish as  I read those words?!?

Well as it turns out, Zinfandel is a new star in Africa and as of two years ago, one producer began making White Zin as a serious part of their very respected portfolio of wines.  Not only that, but apparently there are a bunch (haha) of up-and-coming young South African winemakers who are doing to White Zin what we wish that American winemakers had done years ago; they’re tackling it head on to make it a serious contender in the Rosé – and overall wine – world.

Gasp.

Let’s go back to the first winery I was speaking of just a minute ago.  Its name is Blaauwklippen, and they began their White Zin experiment with the 2007 vintage.  What’s interesting – at least to my eyes and is the complete antithesis of American White Zin producers – they are using a green bottle and though I’ve only been able to look at it in pictures, the wine actually looks, well, *white*!  One more bit of trivia is that while the words “White Zinfandel” appears on the label, they describe it as a “Zinfandel Blanc de Noir” in their written material.

All of my searches could find only this one winery with a current vintage, but more are certain to follow if the success of Blaauwklippen is any indication.

And I’m going to do the unthinkable – tell the story about the Rosé tasting that the Vegas Wineaux Wine Club had last year.  I know I had it *somewhere* in the lost files , but I’m writing this as a reminder.  We had a Sunday brunch blind tasting of six different pink wines, one of which was a (aieeee!) White Zin.  It’s pretty fair to say that quite a few of the members of the club are palate snobs…myself included.  So the pressure was on.  Without naming names, less than half of the participants figured out which one was the White Zin.  ’Nuff said.

Tonight I’m going to be enjoying turkey breast, a salad, and a nice, budget-friendly Pinot Noir.  Not a drop of White Zin in sight.  But that doesn’t mean that it’s the end of America’s best-selling wine varietal in this blog.

Later on I’ll tell you about the site that has many recipes based on White Zin.  Oh the humanity!

Stay tuned!…

Oh! I almost forgot!  I got some of my information from this really terrific little site called Stellenbauchery, a South Africa Wine Adventure, the diary of a young American woman named Julia Burke who relates her adventures living in South Africa during the current harvest season as an intern.  This story is South Africa’s take on White Zin – Zinfandel Blanc de Noir – is a terrific read, as is the rest of her blog.  Too bad her internship is coming to an end.  She makes the adventures there fun.  I’m telling you – it’s a movie in the making!

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