F4 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022
BY BAILEY BERGJanell Dusi grew up on one of
the oldest vineyards in Central
California, in a room where the
gnarled vines touched her win-
dow. As a fourth-generation farm-
er of zinfandel grapes, Dusi
worked the loam-filled soil on the
ranch started by her Italian-immi-
grant great-grandfather in 1925 to
raise grapes that burst with fla-
vors of spice and candied fruit.
And at the end of every harvest
season, she’d watch her family’s
hard work go out the driveway in
the back of pickup trucks to be
crushed, fermented, aged and bot-
tled by winemakers elsewhere.
“I’d ask my dad why we weren’t
making our own wines,” Dusi said,
“and he’d say, ‘Well, that’s because
we get paid 30 days later for our
grapes, and when you make wine,
it takes years.’ ”
Dusi, however, wasn’t deterred.
In 1993, at age 13, she made her
first wine and found a passion in
the creative process. In the years
since, she launched her produc-
tion winery, J Dusi Wines, opened
a tasting room and, more recently,
joined a collective of local wine-
makers working to usher in a new
golden age of Paso Robles wine
through the newly minted Zinfan-
del Trail.
Launched in March 2021, the
California Zinfandel Trail hopes
to reintroduce wine drinkers to
zinfandels — and in doing so,
change some preconceived no-
tions about Paso’s heritage grape
variety.
Stretching thousands of miles
throughout the state and encom-
passing 202 wineries (22 of which
are in the Paso Robles wine re-
gion), the trail isn’t so much a loop
as it is a choose-your-own adven-
ture. The interactive website lays
out the zinfandel-producing win-
eries (and information about
them) in regional maps and builds
an itinerary based on whichever
ones the user selects. For those
who want to make it even easier,
there are also a handful of fea-
tured routes. Paso Perfect, for ex-
ample, covers Dusi’s winery, as
well as Glunz Family Winery and
Cellars, Castoro Cellars, Peachy
Canyon Winery, Opolo Vineyards
and Turley Wine Cellar, along
with suggestions for dining and
lodging.
Although zinfandel grapes can
be found throughout California
today, in Paso Robles, situated
roughly halfway between Los An-
geles and San Francisco, zinfan-
dels were the first varietal planted
in the region. Those vines were
also some of the first in the state.
After the Gold Rush, when Paso
Robles’s wine industry really be-
gan, zinfandel quickly grew in
popularity, thanks to the ease of
access and its proclivity for the
region’s unique terroir. The chalky
soil with its high pH levels, paired
with the most significant day-to-
night temperature swing of any
California wine region (thanks to
its proximity to the Pacific Ocean),
has long helped the fruit fully
mature. Although the grape is
known for being an uneven ripen-
er, the cooler nights allow the
bunches to hang on the vine for
longer and develop uniformly.
The grape also deals well with
drought and viruses.
“With all those factors com-
bined, you can grow some really
good grapes here,” said Chris
Taranto, the communications di-
rector at the Paso Robles Wine
Country Alliance.
By the 1880s, zin was the most
dominant variety in the area. To-
day, however, Taranto says it
makes up just 6 percent of the
total grapes grown in the Paso
Robles region; the most prolific
now is cabernet sauvignon, at 49
percent.
Part of the shift has to do with
the zinfandels of yesteryear. De-
pending on when you came of age
(or at least started drinking wine),
you may have very different ideas
of what a zinfandel is.
For a time, Dusi said, it was en
vogue for zinfandel producers to
craft extremely high-octane, high-
alcohol wines, to the point that
the blends almost felt boastful.
The Washington Post reported in1988 that “Zinfandel production
had become a race to see who
could make not the best wine, but
the biggest.”
“There was a time where the
style was huge, jammy and bom-
bastic,” Dusi said. “It got to the
point where it was so overdone
that it turned people off.”
Jordan Fiorentini, head wine-
maker at Epoch Estate Wines,
echoed Dusi, saying: “They
weren’t elegant, but in terms of
alcohol content, they were a lot of
bang for your buck.”
Another trend that affected the
wine’s popularity was the white
zinfandel craze. Cheap and pro-
duced in massive quantities, the
blush-colored wine became a
powerful fad. But, as wine drink-
ers were introduced to dry rosés,
white zinfandel fell out of fashion.
Because of the initial success of
white zins, the bad rap following
the downturn in its popularityextended to its ruby-hued coun-
terpart. (Even today, some wine
producers still label their potables
“red zinfandel,” so as not to con-
fuse consumers.)
“Some people still equate zin-
fandel as white zin, the overly
sweet, fruity wine their parents or
grandparents drank,” Taranto
said. “People that didn’t necessar-
ily drink wine went crazy over it.
Between those two [trends], that’s
why some people have these no-
tions of zinfandel as being less
than serious.”
Today, Fiorentini said, she fo-
cuses on making elegant, food-
friendly, well-balanced wines that
showcase the varietal. Still, even
though today’s offerings are more
subtle and lower in alcohol, there
are some people who are some-
what hesitant to try them. Visiting
a handful of the wineries on the
Zinfandel Trail, Fiorentini hopes,
will help change whatever pre-sumptions people have about
what makes a zinfandel.
“I hope that they see that zin is a
serious wine and that, in Paso
Robles, we’re really passionate
about it,” she said. “It’s something
that grows well here, and so there
are those of us that are extremely
devoted to it and excited to be
working with it.”
Jake Beckett of Peachy Canyon,
a winery that has between six and
eight zinfandels to offer at any
given time, said he’s optimistic the
trail will show how dynamic the
grape is.
“It’s a grape that can be grown a
lot of different ways. It performs
differently or has different char-
acteristics based on how it’s
farmed,” Beckett said. “It’s like a
chameleon. Because it can be so
different, it’s always interesting.”
His current favorite comes
from vines that were given to his
father by Benito Dusi, JanellDusi’s granduncle. He calls it Nan-
cy’s View, after his mother, be-
cause the grapes used in that
blend are the same ones she sees
from her house. The tasting notes,
he said, are that of dark fruits,
toasty oak, blueberry jam, cocoa
and grilled pineapple. But that’s
just one way the grapes present
themselves. Go to any other win-
ery, and they’re bound to have a
wildly different profile.
“The zinfandels are going to
vary no matter what tasting room
you go to,” Beckett said. “I think
that’s why it’s worth spending
time on the Zinfandel Trail, be-
cause you’re not just going to
different tasting rooms and differ-
ent wineries. You’re discovering
all the different styles of zinfandel
in the process.”Berg is a writer based in Colorado
Springs. Find her on Twitter
(@baileybergs) and Instagram
(@byebaileyberg).J DUSI WINESUncorking a new narrative on zinfandelEPOCH ESTATE WINESBAILEY BERG FOR THE WASHINGTON POST PEACHY CANYON WINERYCLOCKWISE FROM TOP: A view of the tasting room at J Dusi Wines in Paso Robles, Calif., which serves wines from both J Dusi
and Paper Street; t he Epoch Estate Wines tasting room in Templeton, one of more than 200 stops on the California Zinfandel Trail,
which launched in March 2021; a trail sign outside Peachy Canyon Winery; a 2018 zinfandel at Turley Wine Cellars in Templeton.If You Go
WHAT TO DO
California Zinfandel Trail
53 0-274-4900
zinfandeltrail.com
A collection of 202 wineries
spanning California that specialize
in zinfandel wines. Hours and prices
vary; check winery and trail
websites for up-to-date information.
J Dusi Winery and Tasting Room
140 1 Highway 46 West, Paso
Robles, Calif.
805 -226-2 034
jdusiwines.com
This tasting room serves wines from
both J Dusi and Paper Street.
Tasting room open daily 11 a.m. to
4 p.m. Walk-ins welcome, but
reservations are recommended
Thursday through Sunday. Tasting
flight $30 per person, but the fee is
waived with the purchase of at least
$40 worth of wine.
Epoch Estate Wines
750 5 York Mountain Rd.,
Te mpleton, Calif.
805 -237-7575
epochwines.com
Find Epoch’s tasting room on the
York Mountain Winery property.
Tasting room open daily by
appointment from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.;
book online. The “Current Pours”
tasting is $40 per person and
typically includes five flagship
wines. Tasting fee waived with $10 0
purchase.
Peachy Canyon Winery
148 0 N. Bethel Rd., Te mpleton,
Calif.
805 -239-1 918
peachycanyon.com
Peachy Canyon’s tasting room is
found in an old schoolhouse that
dates back to 1886. Tasting room
open daily (except major holidays)
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. At any time,
Peachy Canyon has between six
and eight zinfandels available for
tasting. Full sampling fee $20 per
person; fee waived with the
purchase of one bottle.INFORMATION
travelpaso.com