Converting the Inconvertible: White Zinfandel Drinkers

Having spent the past weekend with a family friend who is a self-proclaimed wine lover/expert that drinks almost exclusively white zinfandel, I find myself pondering the way in which sub-par "white zin" has become the exclusive wine for a certain generation. (This woman is about 60.)

Was it just marketing in the '70s and '80s? Sutter Home was the higher class version of Canei or Gallo wine jugs? Snobbery ensued and white zin stuck as the "classy" option?

I just find it interesting that there are so many die-hard White Zin drinkers. I have found it impossible to convert them to other wines. What's more, and I realize I'm generalizing, they seem to be oblivious to a whole other universe of wines. For instance, I'm occasionally at the bar at a popular restaurant near the Lake Michigan shore in Michigan with a fairly ambitious wine "program" for that area. (Lots of White Zin drinkers there.) It never ceases to amaze me how many people approach the bartender and ask for a "glass of Zinfandel" and are surprised when they receive a red wine. After explaining that "Zinfandel" is actually red, the owner, who occasionally bartends, usually asks the person to take a sip first, and if they don't like it, he'll replace it. I think that's his way of at least getting them to branch out.

At my humble family gatherings, White Zin was the "universal choice" until the younger generation started to riot by bringing their own bottles of white or red, while the older generation continued to pour the Beringer pink from the 1.5 L bottles.

What is it with the White Zin drinkers? Am I alone?!

My feeling is, let people drink what they want to drink. I'm not going to try to convert my wife's extended family away from Coors Light, because it just doesn't affect me in any way.

White Zinfandel is one of those wines people generally order by the glass, anyway, so there isn't even a big bottle staring at you on the table.

If your family friend wants to be a wine expert and white zinfandel devotee at the same time, let her. It's no skin off your nose.

gleam wrote:My feeling is, let people drink what they want to drink. I'm not going to try to convert my wife's extended family away from Coors Light, because it just doesn't affect me in any way.

White Zinfandel is one of those wines people generally order by the glass, anyway, so there isn't even a big bottle staring at you on the table.

If your family friend wants to be a wine expert and white zinfandel devotee at the same time, let her. It's no skin off your nose.

But will the Coors Light drinkers drink another type of beer? If you have, say, MGD or some microbrew in the fridge instead of Coors Light, will they drink that, or is it Coors Light or nothin'?

I think my point is distinct - Coors Light is a brand of beer; White Zin is this discreet type of wine. Even though you'll generally have a much greater choice of, say, producers of Pinot Noir at your average wine shop, with White Zin, you're generally limited to a few brands. Yet, in my experience with certain White Zin drinkers, they don't drink any other type of wine.

I've encountered some people who don't do Chardonnay, but will drink Sauvignon Blanc, some who won't drink Zinfandel, but will drink Pinot Noir, etc., but with the White Zin drinkers I've encountered, unless you've got a bottle of the White Zin, it's a no-go for wine. Period. Perhaps it's the efforts of mass marketing, bottling and availability at the grocery store, coupled with a cheap price. But then again, that goes also for Chianti, but that's verboten with a lot of White Zinners.

Well, they'll drink any american-style lager, but nothing else. You'd never see them with a pale ale or stout or porter or even a witbier. I think it is fairly similar to white zinfandel in this regard.

... and what the frell is white merlot.
Lately, it's appeared on the table at my in-laws, causing some relations to go "oooooh!" as if changing the color somehow makes it better ("Have some pink brussels sprouts!" "Ooooooh!"). Nasty stuff, IMO. Replace the heavy tannins of a merlot with, well, battery acid comes to mind. And if Paul Giamatti's character swore at regular merlot, I can't imagine his response to this stuff.

White Zin brings to mind Bartles & James wine coolers, spritzers, and, truly, Fanta. It's not really as pop-like as all that, but it's got that aspect of it. Such a different beast from the deep dark of its red cousin.

Someone above suggested Pinot Noir as an alternative to red Zinfandel, I usually think Sangiovese, or sometimes a Spanish Rioja (although that really is at least as different as the PN). I haven't yet stumbled across wines made with Croatian primitivo, Zin's ancestor, but I'm looking forward to when I do.

JoelF wrote:... I haven't yet stumbled across wines made with Croatian primitivo, Zin's ancestor, but I'm looking forward to when I do.

They have an Italian Primativo by the glass at Baccala. It didn't remind me of Zinfandel very much, but YMMV.

JoelF wrote:I haven't yet stumbled across wines made with Croatian primitivo, Zin's ancestor, but I'm looking forward to when I do.

Unless you specifically want it to be grown in Croatia (in which case I have no advice), rest assured there are dozens of Italian Primitivo's out there. I sampled my first about eight years ago. It tasted like alcoholized prune juice. I presume the quantity of Primitivo offerings available today is some indicator that the quality must have improved a bit from those innovators, but I don't know, because I've never been able to get past that first (and only) experience. Anyway, it ain't Zinfandel and it sure ain't white zinfandel. For those still on the fence, let me just say that assuming this "primitive" ancestor of Zinfandel would taste like the contemporary grape is a bit like assuming a Neanderthal Man could dance like Fred Astaire, because, hey, they've got the same genes (more or less).

Turning the topic back around, who's actually tried white Zin recently? I almost want to go out and buy a bottle now to see what I'm missing/forgetting. It can't be all THAT bad, can it? (Nor, of course, can it be so good as to be your single choice of quaff, but that's been pondered and addressed above.)

aschie30 wrote:I'm occasionally at the bar at a popular restaurant near the Lake Michigan shore in Michigan with a fairly ambitious wine "program" for that area. (Lots of White Zin drinkers there.) It never ceases to amaze me how many people approach the bartender and ask for a "glass of Zinfandel" and are surprised when they receive a red wine.

I've had the opposite happen numerous times. Asked for a glass of Zinfandel, and then had this whitish-pinkish thing show up. And then I wonder, can the waiter really be that clueless, or do I look like a guy who likes "White Zinfandel"? I'm gonna say "clueless waiter" for the sake of my self-esteem.

We have a regular customer at the bar that drinks only white zinfandel, and quite a lot of it, too. We keep a box in the back cooler, and when she comes in we haul it out. She is very good-humored about the joshing we (and other customers) give her when we prop the box up on the bar to pour her another glass, but she certainly never drinks anything else.

I think that for her White Zin serves as a very "easy" (ie, not too flavorful, not as sweet as a fruity drink, not "weird") alcohol delivery system.

JimInLoganSquare wrote:Turning the topic back around, who's actually tried white Zin recently? I almost want to go out and buy a bottle now to see what I'm missing/forgetting. It can't be all THAT bad, can it? (Nor, of course, can it be so good as to be your single choice of quaff, but that's been pondered and addressed above.)

Well - It depends on what you call "Bad". I asked myself the same question as JILS and decided to give the White Zin another chance...

I tried a bottle of grocery-store variety white zin at Christmas time (I think it was Beringer or something) as my boyfriend's mother is a big white zin person. It's not that it was bad - it had a fruity flavor that was not unlike an alchoholic smoothie - but it was just too darn sweet for me to be able to pick out other flavors. Frankly I think she likes the sugar, unfortunately I don't (at least not that much sugar).

Now for some people, super sweet is a good thing and that's what they want to drink. What I've found in the past with white zin is that there is no subtlety, just sweet. Unfortunately, with the "Liquid-Christmas-Sweetness" disguised as White Zin, this was overwhelmingly the case.

Now unlike Aschie30, I've been able to get my boyfriend's mother to try other "sweet" wines (perhaps off-dry is a better term...) that aren't necessarily "complex" but at least more for your mouth to consider than the sugar-bomb we had at Christmas - a Reisling Spatlasse, a nice Bonny Doon, a Missouri-variety Seval Blanc, etc. - and suprise, suprise she likes them too!

Now she thinks of herself an "expert"...because she can recommend other "off-dry" wines.

I guess my point is: the white zin thing isn't so bad if you're just looking for something sweet to drink. Frankly, I'd rather have a Dr. Pepper - it's way better than a bottle of that stuff that we had at Christmas - but whatever floats your boat, you know?

My aunt drinks only white zinfandel if she's drinking. I think that she likes the very predictable sweetness after having been unpleasantly surprised by other wines. The same is true of a few others who aren't regular wine drinkers. Unfortunately, these folks gave me a bottle of white zin, knowing that I like wine but not knowing that it was too sweet for my taste. But it mixed up very nicely with juice for a white sangia/wine cooler concoction.

aschie30 wrote:Having spent the past weekend with a family friend who is a self-proclaimed wine lover/expert that drinks almost exclusively white zinfandel, I find myself pondering the way in which sub-par "white zin" has become the exclusive wine for a certain generation. (This woman is about 60.)

I don't think it's generational, exactly. White zin superseded Mateus rose, which followed Cold Duck. Nothing else has really come along to fit that category.

It's easy to drink. It's inexpensive. It tastes better than jug wines and pop wines. It's a pretty color.

It suits the palates of people who want something modestly alcoholic yet who don't care for the bitter components of beer, the tannins of red wines or the acidity of whites.

mellonhead wrote:I've been able to get my boyfriend's mother to try other "sweet" wines (perhaps off-dry is a better term...) that aren't necessarily "complex" but at least more for your mouth to consider than the sugar-bomb we had at Christmas - a Reisling Spatlasse, a nice Bonny Doon, a Missouri-variety Seval Blanc, etc. - and suprise, suprise she likes them too!

Now she thinks of herself an "expert"...because she can recommend other "off-dry" wines.

OK- I am a secret White Zin fan. I like the sweetness, and mixing it with seltzer for a spritzer on a hot day. I appreciate the "alternative" suggestions above.. any more White Zin-ish wines out there anyone can reccommend? I think that for folks that don't spend a lot of time researching wines fall back on White Zin because that's all they know, in terms of sweeter/fruitier wines.

Thanks!

gewurztraminer, riesling, moscato d'asti