Peachy Canyon’s Incredible Red lives up to its name

Imagine a beautiful canyon filled with peach trees in the heart of idyllic Paso Robles in California's Central Coast. It is home to the Old Bethel Schoolhouse, which today functions as Peachy Canyon Winery's tasting room.

Built in 1886, there's history to be found here, and the wines are delicious, especially the Incredible Red, so called because it is the first thing that comes to mind when tasting it.

This type of wine -- at less than $10 -- is exactly what California should be known for and offering overseas, particularly in Europe. It is uniquely American and has few peers in the wine world, except for its distant cousin, the primitivo grape from Italy.

In the glass, Incredible Red is a deep semi-opaque ruby red at the core with a violet streak going through to the lightish-red rim definition.

The nose is highly expressive with dark stewed fruits, black plum meat, Morrello cherries, brambleberries, blackberry sorbet, red flowers, and light traces of oak and hints of licorice root.

On the palate, the wine is a rich, mouth-filling, well-balanced and powerful medley of black fruit that you could almost chew, with lots of plums, cherries and other dark fruits, tinged by a touch of blackberry liqueur and very light hints of oak. The midpalate is lovely and rounded, but still rich in black fruit compote going through to the solid finish that is complemented by supple tannins and some more black cherry fondant, lingering for a good 30-plus seconds.

Incredible Red Zinfandel is a dream with pasta Alfredo, served with good rustic Italian bread. If it is kept properly, the wine will drink well during the next two to three years.

Wine: Peachy Canyon Winery Incredible Red Zinfandel

Grape: Zinfandel

Region: Paso Robles, Calif.

Vintage: 2005

Price: $9.99

Gil Lempert-Schwarz's wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89016-0749, or e-mail him at gil@winevegas.com.