It's not enough for California to have a state bird (valley quail), tree (redwood), flower (golden poppy), reptile (desert tortoise) and even dance (West Coast swing). What the Golden State really needs is an official wine, says state Sen. Carole Migden, and the only wine that fills the bill is zinfandel.
"Zinfandel is the quintessential California wine," the San Francisco Democrat said last week when she introduced legislation that would bestow that status on the wine zippily known as "zin." Zinfandels "go with just about any food" and thus are suited to represent a state with such a rich diversity of cuisines and cultures, she added.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday February 15, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 88 words Type of Material: Correction
Zinfandel wine -- An article about zinfandel in Monday's California section quoted Gary Fishman, domestic wine buyer for Wally's Wine and Spirits, as saying: "If you're just tasting [red] zinfandels, they'll stick out as being extraordinarily more concentrated. When you go to sit down and have a meal with it, you're exhausted. It's like drinking hard liquor." The quotation should have made clear that Fishman was referring to zinfandels with an alcohol content above 14.5%. Zinfandels with lower alcohol content, in his view, are quite compatible with food.
Her proposal, unveiled Thursday, has uncorked a barrelful of sentiment, both pro and con, among wine enthusiasts, growers and winemakers. Many are delighted by the attempt to showcase a wine that has a rich history in the state. Others say lawmakers would be foolish to single out one varietal in a state that does so many so well.
Makers of cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and merlot "are not going to be real happy about it, and I think that's the main problem here," said Carole Meredith, professor emeritus at UC Davis who has studied zinfandel's DNA. "I don't think there's a tremendous amount of support in the grape and wine industry for this."
Others disagreed. Zinfandel's ample variety makes it a good choice, said Stuart Smith of Smith-Madrone, a St. Helena winery that produces chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and riesling -- but no zinfandel -- because it "provides a little something for everybody."
As the 2004 film "Sideways" demonstrated, Californians have strong feelings about their wines. In that boozy buddy picture, set in Santa Barbara County, merlot got a bad rap while pinot noir received a huge boost. In fact, retailers say, zinfandel sales have been eclipsed of late by pinot noir, partly because of the "Sideways" effect.
Migden's proposal has California's more than $45-billion wine industry puzzling over who might have been behind the push for zinfandel.
"I suspect it's some Sonoma guys," said Charles Sullivan, a wine historian and the author of the 2003 book "Zinfandel: A History of a Grape and Its Wine." "Somebody got to her."
The obvious choice, many industry observers speculate, would have been the nonprofit Zinfandel Advocates & Producers, based in Rough and Ready, Calif., northwest of Sacramento. The organization professed ignorance in a statement released Friday.
