2018 Broc Cellars 'Vine Starr', Sonoma County, CA

This bright and spicy Zinfandel is a testament to its vintage, and its winemaker's restraint.

Zinfandel is one of my favorite grapes. The grape itself, produced from a vitis vinefera vine, is from Croatia, but it came to the United States from Austria in the 1820s. New Englanders tried to grow it with little success, but California caught on with the grape right away, around the 1840s. We actually thought it was our grape for a while—a vitis vin…