If You Like Zinfandel…

You may have been lucky enough to taste the wines that Jayson Woodbridge makes in California under the Hundred Acre label. They are rich, lush and very expensive Cabernet Sauvignons created for the Cult Cab crowd.

The good news is that Woodbridge, a Canadian by birth has chosen to make some wine for the rest of us. He went to Australia, Argentina, France and Italy to source grapes for a line of wines he calls Layer Cake.  They are delicious and affordable coming in at under $20 a bottle.

My favorite of the Layer Cake wines comes from the Puglia region of Italy where Jayson sourced Primitivo grapes from 100 year old vines to produce the Layer Cake Primitivo.

What’s that you ask?

Primitivo is Italian Zinfandel. And the grape called Crljenak Kastelanski is Croatian Zinfandel. In 2001, a geneticist named Dr. Carole Meredith of the University of California at Davis, the wine school as it were, used DNA technology to prove that these three varieties of grapes, Primitivo, the Italian version, Zinfandel, found largely in the Americas, and Crljenak Kastelanski, an obscure varietal from Croatia, are all identical.

So effectively Layer Cake was making an Italian “Zinfandel.”

And oh, what a Zin. Big berries on the nose, deep, and again, rich. This was another wine that I could see quaffing in the summer over the grill, perhaps replacing my pork for fowl. What fun.

Try all of the Layer Cake wines. I think you’ll be pleased with both the quality and the value.

What’s your favorite zin?

Tags: Americas, Argentina, Australia, California, Carole Meredith, Croatia, DNA technology, France, Italy, Jayson Woodbridge, University of California, University of California at Davis, USD

Category: Food & Wine, Lifestyle