WineDay: Portico Will Stop the Show

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by Fred McMillin
for December 21, 1998

Portico Will Stop the Show

Prologue

One out of every 10 bottles of wine opened in the U.S.A. is White Zinfandel.

60% of White Zinfandel enthusiasts say they drink nothing else.

91% of White Zinfandel drinkers questioned say they plan to buy Portico.

A bottle of Portico will make a nice Christmas suprise for your favorite White Zin fan, and it will cost you only $5!

The Rest of the Story

Portico Alright already. What's Portico?...three different White Zinfandels with a twist. Just before bottling, a small amount of natural fruit juice has been added.

The flavors:

Raspberry
Strawberry-kiwi combo
Peach-mango combo

They all have a pleasing acid-sugar balance. If you try only one, my panel's choice was the peach-mango...subtle but persistence flavors.

The Wine

Peach and Mango Portico
Sutter Home
Service—Chill as you would your other White Zins. I give it only 45 minutes in the frig, so fruit flavors are not lost.
Price—$5 range

Postscript

The name Portico was selected to symbolize the entrance to a new taste experience. The leaders of Sutter Home, brothers Bob and Roger Trinchero, know a thing or two about selecting wine names. When Bob, the winemaker, created a new pink in 1972, he proposed the name "Oeil de Perdix." However, the federal government required that a translation be shown on the label. So instead of submitting "Eye of the Partridge," he simply wrote "White Zinfandel"...that was 400 million bottles ago!

About the Writer

Fred McMillin, a veteran wine writer, has taught wine history for 30 years on three continents. He currently teaches wine courses at San Francisco State and San Francisco City College. In 1995, the Academy of Wine Communications honored Fred with one of only 22 Certificates of Commendation awarded to American wine writers.

WineDay Annex

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Fred McMillin

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