70 ZINFANDEL WINERIES IN WASHINGTON D.C. ON APRIL 23-24
AT SMITHSONIAN & MARRIOTT METRO

Rough & Ready, California, spring 2003----Seventy Zinfandel wineries who belong to Zinfandel Advocates & Producers will pour their wines for the public and the wine trade in Washington D.C. On April 23 ZAP member wineries will pour their wines at the Gala Preview Night Party for the 21st Annual Smithsonian Craft Show; on April 24 the wineries will pour their wines for the public and members of the wine trade at the Marriott Metro Hotel. Profits from this event will support the ongoing research at the Heritage Vineyard, a collection of old-vine Zinfandels maintained by the University of California, Davis. A complete list of the participating wineries is below and at www.zinfandel.org. This same group of wineries will also be traveling to New York City (May 1) and Boston (April 29) for similar tastings (further detail at www.zinfandel.org).

On Thursday, April 24 the public is invited to attend a walkaround tasting featuring the wines of 70 different California Zinfandel producers, from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m. at the Marriott Metro Hotel (775 12th Street NW). Tickets are $40.00/person for the public (by mail and $44.00 on line) and $30.00/person for ZAP members. Members of the wine trade (restaurateurs, sommeliers, retailers) are invited to a separate tasting in the afternoon (more info about this at www.zinfandel.org). Tickets are available from www.zinfandel.org or 530/274-4900. A limited number of tickets for the public only will be available at the door; attendees must be 21 years of age (or older); no babies in strollers are permitted.

On Wednesday, April 23, the Zinfandel producers will be pouring their wines at the Gala Preview Night Party for the 21st Annual Smithsonian Craft Show at the National Building Museum (401 F Street, N.W. Washington, D.C.) from 6:30 until 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $125.00/person and can be purchased from 202/357-4000 or www.smithsoniancraftshow.org. No tickets will be available at the door for this event.

These Zinfandel vintners will be pouring their wines on Amtrak's high-speed Acela Express trains out of Washington to Boston on April 25 and April 28. The Acela Express, capable of 150 mph, cuts at least 40 minutes off previous train travel time between these cities by using 'tilt technology,' which moves trains through curves. The specific trains are: Acela Express 2168: Friday April 25, Washington Union Station-Boston South Station, 2:00 p.m. - 8:34 p.m.; Acela Express 2168: Monday April 28, Washington Union Station-Boston South Station, 2:00-8:34 p.m.; Acela Express 2175: Wednesday April 30, Boston-New York City Penn Station, 5:15-8:42 p.m. Tickets may be purchased online at www.amtrak.com or by calling 800/USA-RAIL. There is no additional charge for the wine tasting, and light hors d'oeuvres will be served as well.

Zinfandel has a unique spot in American cultural history as well as American viticulture. Zinfandel is the only wine grape varietal considered unique to the U.S. by the B.A.T.F. It once was the most widely planted varietal in California. Zinfandel is the most stylistically diverse wine made in the U.S. and possibly in the world. "Zinfandel has no historical stylistic context elsewhere in the world that restricts our winemakers' creativity. Few New World wine regions have had the opportunity to create a new great wine. With other varieties, we have constantly compared our efforts to European standards. Zinfandel gives us an unparalleled opportunity to create unique world-class wines," explains Dr. James Wolpert of the Viticulture & Enology Department at University of California, Davis.

ZAP FESTIVAL IN SAN FRANCISCO
The 12th Annual Zinfandel Advocates & Producers Festival in San Francisco, January 22-25, 2003, attracted 10,525 attendees over four days of events; 291 wineries poured their Zinfandels; there were approximately 776 different Zinfandels available to taste. For more detail, visit www.zinfandel.org. Flights of Fancy: A Regional Showcase of California Zinfandels was the first event in the Festival; it took place on January 22 at COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts in Napa, and drew a capacity crowd of 175 people. From tales of finding sharks' teeth in Paso Robles vineyards to Mendocino vineyards with views of the ocean, tasters came away with an extremely detailed look at the vast scope of Zinfandel-iana. For the seventh year, Good Eats and Zinfandel paired 36 Zinfandels and 36 restaurants' cuisine at Rosenblum Cellars in Alameda. In its sixth year, ZAP's An Evening with the Winemakers: Blue Jeans to Black Tie on January 24 welcomed 400 Zinfandel afiionados, who came dressed in everything from a Scottish kilts and togas to sequined gowns to blue jeans and cowboy boots. The auction's proceeds, $65,000, benefited research at the Heritage Vineyard (in the Napa Valley).

ZAP FOR THE CALENDAR
The 13th Annual ZAP Festival will be held January 21-24, 2004. In March 2003 a group of ZAP wineries will be traveling to Germany--to the Rheingau Gourmet Festival and Pro-Wine in Dusseldorf.

THE HERITAGE VINEYARD
Numerous old Zinfandel vineyards in California survived Prohibition and many date back to the late 1890s. Many in the wine world refer to Zinfandel as 'America's heritage grape' because it was widely planted in northern California during the Gold Rush and is prominent in histories of that time, as a heavy-producing grape type whose wine satisfied many a miner's thirst. The Heritage Vineyard is an unusual and unprecedented collection of rare and 'famous' Zinfandel vine cuttings from all over California. A research team began going on Zinfandel 'safaris' in 1989 searching for vineyards planted before 1930. Today the Heritage Vineyard contains selections from Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Luis Obispo, San Joaquin, Amador, El Dorado, Lake and Santa Clara (Santa Cruz Mountains) counties as well as the Cucamonga region of Southern California. The selections were taken from vineyards at least 60 years old and older. They were specifically chosen by the researchers because they were known to produce unique and high quality wines. The Heritage Vineyard stretches across one acre within the University of California, Davis' Oakville (Napa Valley) Research Station. The Vineyard has been planted keeping in mind that it is both a repository of plant material and a collection of historic material: the vineyard is planted at 6 ft x 8 ft (row x vine) spacing; the vines are head-trained and spur-pruned in the "goblet" shape as they would have been in the nineteenth century. Since 1998 ZAP has donated $141,280 to the Heritage Vineyard. "The Heritage Vineyard brings us all together as scientists, historians, farmers and artists," adds Rebecca Robinson, ZAP's Executive Director. "Ultimately, this research will help us discover answers to some of the mysteries surrounding Zinfandel and preserve the special qualities of the old vines for future generations," she adds.