Camp Zinfandel, Mendocino County '23

It’s not often that a Zinfandel from California makes it into the wine club, but this wine is too good to pass up—delicious, versatile, and an excellent value.

Since 2002, Kenny Likitprakong along with his wife, Lynn, who founded Hobo Wine at the time, have been making a new kind of California wine, eventually setting up their winery in Santa Rosa in 2013. With labels such as Hobo, Folk Machine, Banyan, and today’s featured wine, Camp, they works with over 40 vineyards spread throughout Northern California. The Camp label was founded in 2011, and specifically to address the need for “real wine” that can be poured by the glass in restaurants or drunk on an everyday basis at home. The most important thing about what Kenny and Lynn do is that they are working with vineyards they know, that are responsibly farmed, and that produce high-quality fruit.

The 2023 Zinfandel is 95% from the Lolonis Vineyard in Redwood Valley and 5% from the Vecino Vineyard in Potter Valley. All lots were fermented in stainless steel tanks with moderate temperatures to control the amount of extraction, and then aged in French oak barrels of varying ages. This wine is always wonderfully bright and juicy, fresh and satisfying without any of the heavy, jammy, overripe characteristics that so often weigh Zinfandel down. It is the perfect red to sip on its own, but it will also work well with almost anything grilled, especially hamburgers.