White Zin was a sweet accident

White Zinfandel or White Zin, as it is commonly called, is a sweet, pink-colored wine that is made using the red grape varietal Zinfandel. It’s ironic that such sweet wine comes from a grape that is known for being spicy, peppery and, in some instances, contains prune-like flavors.

Over the past 30 or so years, White Zins have become one of the top selling wines in North America — but why? One thought is that we live in a society where many of us have been raised drinking sodas and eating very sugary cereals. Therefore, the sweetness of the White Zin makes it an easy wine for the novice.

In 1972, while experimenting with juice from freshly crushed Zinfandel grapes, Sutter Home Winery made a wine using some juice that had not been in contact with the skins. The winery fermented this juice in the same manner as a dry white wine and it was called White Zinfandel — but the wine was not sweet. The real breakthrough came in 1975, as an accident. A large batch of White Zinfandel stopped fermenting, which the industry refers to as “stuck fermentation,” and the winemaker decided to let the wine remain in the fermentation tanks for a couple of weeks while he completed some other projects. Upon returning to the tank, the winemaker discovered that the wine was a bit pink and due to some residual sugar was quite sweet — and hence the beginning of White Zin as we know it today.

Since many wines are dry tasting, people start out drinking sweeter wines because they are more pleasant to the untrained palate.

Then they make a natural progression to German wines that are still sweet, but have much more body and flavors than the White Zin. This is followed by drinking some of the more fruity Chardonnays — which then leads to dryer whites and then finally to the bolder and dryer red wines. These dryer types of wines enhance food flavors and are one of the reasons people truly enjoy wines.

Today, Beringer Vineyards probably produces the most popular White Zin on the market retailing for approximately $6 a bottle. In addition to other wineries, Sutter Homes also continues to produce this style of wine.

In terms of food pairing, White Zin is better suited for creamy pasta dishes, but it also pairs well with tangy barbecued foods. This wine typically contains flavors of vanilla, strawberry, raspberry and cherry. You should drink it in the low 50-degree temperature range, meaning that it should be removed from the refrigerator approximately 30 minutes prior to opening the bottle. One word of caution, White Zin doesn’t age well, so these wines should be drunk within the first six or so months from release.

Jim Rawe, a family attorney in Bradenton, is an avid collector of fine wines. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at jimrawe@gmail.com.