The Plonk That Goes Plunk

Posted on May 17, 2006

The Plonk that Goes Plunk
AUDIO MP3
I have fond memories of driving to Sonoma County, California years ago and tasting good no-frills wines. I am sure some of their descendents now have $50 price tags. One of the places I loved was Sebastiani, a purveyer of fine large jugs of everyday plonk run by one of the old-line familes of Italian winemakers who came here more than 100 years ago.

Well, they’re back. Brother Don and his clan, descendents of Sam and August of the old days, have come up with a wine that is as unpretentious and innocent as California wine country in the 70s. It is from Dry Creek, an area of Sonoma that is considered God’s green acre for Zinfandels. How unpretentious is it? Well, it is not a Chateau anything. It is called Plungerhead and has a stopper remindful of that of a bleach bottle. Actually the stopper is of Australian origin and it is called a Zork. No more fiddly corkscrews or complicated “Rabbit” contraptions whose screws get dull and bend and have to be replaced. No more sticking an emergency corkscrew in your carryon only to be pulled aside by some unsympathetic Pepsi drinker from Homeland Security.

Plungerhead a good, juicy but not horribly overpowering old vine Zin in the tradition of the simple stuff that I enjoyed years ago when I explored Sonoma for the first time in my smoking Volkswagen beetle. My simple tastes haven’t changed and at less than ten bucks a bottle, have not become dramatically more expensive.

Not only that, opening the bottle makes a sound sure to make heads turn in a restaurant. Thwunk! Make that Plungerhead, please.