What Are You Drinking?

Michael Updegraff

Swanson Vineyards & Winery

“A 1997 Zinfandel from Ridge Vineyards. It’s a wine of tremendous breeding and class, very ripe and forward with great fruit. I had it with a rabbit dish in a game reduction sauce at Tra Vigne (restaurant in St. Helena). Rabbit is the perfect texture and flavor for it. . . . But I would just as well serve it on a Wednesday night at home with pasta. It’s extremely flexible with food. From what we’ve been hearing, 1997 will be one of the classic vintages in California in terms of California fruit.”