When quality meets affordability in a wine that also speaks to your heart, I would say that is a win-win! The White Rocket Wine Company's Dog House line featuring California grown Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Grigio, Zinfandel and Chardonnay supports Guide Dogs for the Blind by donating fifty-cents of each bottle purchased to their life changing programs. Not only do you get to enjoy your wine but you can improve the quality of life for many blind and visually impaired individuals across the country.

Guide Dogs for the Blind is a charitable organization that does not benefit from any government funding and therefore relies on donations to provide free guide dogs and training to those in need. Since Dog House Wines pledged their support for the non-profit, over $214,000 have been donated to its cause. Not only are Dog House Wines champions in terms of philanthropic giving but the wines have also earned over sixty individual awards making this brand a worthy selection for anyone... plus, who could resist that adorable dog on the label!

Wine goddess and author Natalie MacLean has made her picks for wines for this year's Thanksgiving feast. MacLean, the author of the book Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass also has some simple rules for Thanksgiving wine pairing:

Starting off with a Champagne, Prosecco or other sparkling wine sets a festive note and makes a great aperitif.

Red wine or white wine with the turkey? You can do either. A crisp white like a Riesling or Pinot Grigio works but a juicy red like a Zinfandel also works well (it sort of mimics the berry note of the cranberry sauce). You can also go for the practically fruit juice appeal of this year's Beaujolais Nouveau.

You can also match your wine to the sides, offering other wines such as a buttery Chardonnay to complement the stuffing and veggies or a Sauvignon Blanc to add a little pep to a palate numbed by too many cream sauces. .

She suggests a late harvest wine or ice wine to pair with dessert to add the perfect finishing touch. In my experience, I have found that a Port or a late harvest Zinfandel works well with pecan pie while a late harvest Chardonnay can work with pumpkin pie.

After the jump, her top picks for reds and whites for the table.

Oh how I wish I were headed to Napa this weekend. If you need to chase away your income-tax-paying blues, Judd's Hill Winery just might be the place. On Saturday, April 14 they are holding the First Annual Judd's Hill Musical Bonanza, from noon until 4:00 p.m. The event celebrates the release of their 2005 Old Vine Zinfandel and Judd's band, The Maikai Gents Featuring The Mysterious Miss Mauna Loa, will perform as well as a variety of other bands including the tropical rock band APE and King Kukulele from Los Angeles, a comedic ukulele player. A barbecue feast will be served and all of the winery's current releases are available for sale and for tasting. A few hours and those nasty tax forms will be a distant memory. Tickets are $85 ($70 for Judd's Wine Club members).

Recent studies discovered that NASCAR fans are into wine, and the same can be said of Harley Davidson owners, hence a new wine aiming at the Harley fan demographic. The V-Twin Zin from the V-Twin Vineyards in Sonoma is a wine for the motorcycle lifestyle. The 2004 estate vineyard Zinfandel is sourced from a vineyard in the Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County, Calif., and has a label decorated with skulls and a flaming V-twin engine. The company also have a member gallery on its website for biker pictures. Other releases planned are the River Run Chardonnay, Poker Run Cabernet, Redwood Run Zinfandel and the Toy Run Rose. The 2004 V-Twin Zin sells for $24 per bottle.

If you are itching to have the same experience I had last January in San Francisco, the sensory overload of submerging yourself in a tasting of Zinfandels, the ZAP crew is taking their act on the road. This spring will find the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers traveling to Austin, Texas, Phoenix, Arizona and Minneapolis, Minnesota for Grand Tasting events to bring Zin love to the masses with tastings on May 8 in Austin, May 10 at the Wrigley Mansion in Phoenix and as part of Winefest No. 12-A Toast To Children's Health in Minneapolis on May 11-12. Details and prices for each tasting are available at the ZAP website.

As a devoted wine consumer, I looked at the experience to taste Zinfandels at the ZAP festival with both excitement and apprehension. It's one thing to taste a few wines in an evening, it's quite another to spend a beautiful San Francisco morning tasting nothing but Zinfandels. It's a curious thing to taste that many wines. I set up shop at a table where I there was another taster and, after a short while, he said to me with a weary expression that he was getting tired and he was only ten wines in.

I would highly recommend attending ZAP next year for anyone who really wants to learn more about their likes and dislikes in wine. There is something about tasting only in one grape and a narrow range of vintages that distills wine to its essence. It is in that sameness that the differences start to appear. As an amateur taster I have often struggled to find some of the tastes in a wine that are listed on the bottle but tasting in this manner really makes the more subtle flavors come clear. While I was tasting, I also had a conversation with one of the volunteers about the fact that the press area didn't have a lot of women (although there were plenty of women down on the main floor both tasting and pouring).

After the jump, my notes on the Zinfandels I tasted (my late harvests and port-style notes will be a separate post). I rated them on an A,B,C scale. A wines are the ones where it seriously pained me to have to spit them out. B wines are the ones I would happily take to a dinner party or serve at home and they tended to be the type of wine that I generally associate with Zinfandel, spicy, robust and a touch over the top. The C wines are wines that I wouldn't go out of my way to find. My tastes run toward the fruit bombs rather than overly tannic wines.

I had been told the ZAP festival in San Francisco is a wine event like no other, a raucous and intense experience. I was eager to have the chance to see 237 Zinfandel producers showing off their best wines in two pavillions. I wasn't alone. The picture above captures the line at around 9:45 am Saturday morning. Nothing like starting off the day with a glass or two or twenty of Zinfandel. I'll be listing the Zins I tasted later but first here's a quick tour around the event.

Never let it be said I am neglecting my wine education. This week I will be heading north to attend not one but two wine-themed events. First up, the Unifed Grape Symposium in Sacramento and a chance to learn more about challenges and opportunities facing vineyards. I am looking to peeking behind the curtain a bit to learn more about the magic of wine. And will report back with the latest wine industry news.

Next up, ZAP, the annual Zinfandel tasting in San Francisco that causes thousands to converge to taste Zinfandel after Zinfandel. The massive Saturday tasting costs $60. It will be a bit of a marathon, tasting around 100 wines in one afternoon. I'll be following the sage advice of Alder over at Vinography and planning my attack wisely and remembering to sip well and spit often. Hope to see you there.

I have a confession, I have been known to choose a bottle of wine based solely on the cuteness of the bottle. Often I pay for this crime with a big old glass of swill. Not so with the Seven Deadly Zins. Sure, it was the wit of the label with the cute listing of the seven "deadly zins" that first got my attention but the seven zins mentioned actually refer to the seven Lodi growers who contributed their old vine zinfandel grapes to this blend. The wine is made from grapes whose vines which are on average around 50 years old and the result is a rich wine with blackberry and cherry fruit flavors and a strong peppery note. It can generally be found for around $14 per bottle making it a lovely inexpensive option.

Tickets just went on sale for the 16th Annual Zinfandel Advocates & Producers Festival which will take place January 24-27, 2007 at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, California. The event includes a showcase of California Zinfandel wine flights, walk-around wine and food tastings, but the showcase event is the Evening with the Winemakers Benefit Auction and Dinner at The Fairmont Hotel. The reception will include a taste of the 2003 Heritage Vineyard Zinfandel, made by Bill Knuttel of Dry Creek Vineyard, an auction and then dinner. Tickets are $200 for ZAP members and $250 for non-members and must be purchased in advance. The Heritage vineyard is a collection of rare and famous Zinfandel vine cuttings grown throughout California. The Heritage Vineyard Zinfandel therefore represents a sort of quaffable museum and can only be purchased at this event. Other events during the festival cost around $100.

If you like Zinfandel then you should know about Zin Alley, a small winery in Templeton, California. They specialize in Red Zinfandel and Zinfandel port. They do not ship to stores and their wine is only available in restaurants in the Paso Robles area. They are happy to sell to individuals and people who have made the trek to the winery rave about the experience. The Red Zinfandel sells for $42 and the Port costs $40.