In the Holiday issue of Food & Wine Magazine, F&W chose just TWO red wines and producers from each of their "favorite" regions—wines and producers that they felt illustrate the best and most interesting red wines from that region.
Their choices for Paso Robles are (drumroll, please!):
Basic Wine Picks
2006 Dover Canyon Winery Cujo Zinfandel ($19): Big, dark, juicy black raspberries.
Benchmark Wine Picks
2005 Turley Wine Cellars Pesenti Vineyard Zinfandel ($38): Mocha and blackberry, with plenty of peppery spice.
Both the Cujo and Pesenti case productions hover around 500-700 cases per year, so both of these zinfandels are discovered by only a few diehard zinfanatics devoted to varietally correct, raspberry-peppercorn zins. We were pretty amazed to be chosen alongside Turley, as their overall production is much larger than ours, and Turley has national distribution while our tiny production is not enough to satisfy coastal California!
I was pleased to notice other small productions in their lineup as well, like Paraiso Vineyards pinot noir from Monterey (which resides in my own personal cellar) and Saviah Cellars Syrah from Walla Walla. A welcome departure from the usual nationally-distributed brands, and I think F&W deserves some kudos for supporting small producers and for helping their readership discover them!
Thank you, Food & Wine!
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