Mention white Zinfandel to any serious wine drinker and you’re likely to get a dirty look. That was the look Krista gave Dan when he suggested they do a white zin tasting for the column.

Krista is a serious zinfandel drinker – the red kind; the kind that will make you say, “Wow! That’s a wine.”

Dan, however, convinced her that we need to see if white zin is as bad as she thinks or if there are some gems out there that we could recommend to wine beginners. The last time we did a white zin tasting, in 2004, there were a few we liked. At that time, we also found several white merlots and white shirazes on the shelves as well, but most of those seem to have disappeared over time (You can still find Beringer white merlot, however, and we recommend trying it if you see it).

So how is white zinfandel today? To find out, we invited over Krista’s co-worker Jason Murphy and his wife, Tanya, and their friends Barb Ley and Brent Brumbaugh, to try eight bottles of white zin. It turned out to be one of our cheapest tastings ever at $4 to $9 a bottle. As we generally do, we tasted these wines blind so we would block out preconceived notions about any specific wine.

We started with Vendange California white zinfandel ($5.99 for a 1.5-liter bottle), which was declared a 2008 World Wine Champions Best Buy. We’re not sure where that comes from or what it means, but at $6 for a double bottle, it is cheap. It wasn’t terrible either, but we couldn’t decide on how good it was – Krista liked it, but Dan dumped most of his out. Our tasters loved it immediately.

“It’s perfect,” Tanya said. Upon her first tasting of it, she thought it was wonderful and not too dry. But later on after she had tried several sweeter wines, she was no longer sure of this one.

Jason, who is a chardonnay drinker, thought this wine would go well with seafood.

Next, we tried Crane Lake 2007 California white zinfandel ($3.99), which smelled a little buttery, and Krista thought it tasted a little like raisins. It had a good balance between the sweetness and the acids that made it crisp, and was smooth.

Tanya thought it was smooth and a little lighter than the first wine. Jason liked it, too.

“It’s not as dry, and has more flavor,” Brent said.

Next, we tried Gallo Family Vineyards 2009 Twin Valley California white zinfandel ($4.69), which turned out to be a big hit with several of our tasters.

“It tastes like juice with alcohol in it,” Tanya said. “I could drink a whole bottle.”

This wine is indeed chuggable. Krista thought it tasted a lot like spiked Kool-Aid, but not in a good way. Dan called it super juicy, with really crisp acids and tons of fruit.

We then moved on to Glen Ellen Proprietor’s Reserve 2009 California zinfandel rosé ($6.99), which everyone immediately dumped out. It was sour and had a bad taste; while they got the name right – technically, all white zinfandels are zinfandel rosés – there was something wrong with this bottle.

Next was Beringer 2009 California white zinfandel ($6.49), which turned out to be much sweeter than we remembered. In the past we had often thought Beringer was one of the better brands, but this time it was far too sweet for our palettes. It had some acids to balance out the sugar, but not nearly enough. For our tasters though, it was a different story.

“I like that one,” Barb said. “It’s sweet, but it’s yummy.”

Our next wine was Buehler Vineyards 2007 California white zinfandel ($8.99), which was also almost universally disliked. It was as if there were two wines in this bottle, the first was harsh and acidic, followed by a sweet, watered down wine. Krista thought it had a chemical taste to it and was completely unbalanced. It’s possible it was just out of date – for a wine like white zin, definitely get the youngest, freshest bottle you can find.

Next was Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi 2009 California white zinfandel ($8.99), which was drier and had some similarities to chardonnay. Krista found it inoffensive but nondescript; Dan also suspected there was some chardonnay in the blend, which gave it about the only flavor it had. Still, it was drinkable and easy-going, and you could do worse on a summer day.

“It’s a little dry at the end,” Brent said. “I’m still trying to figure it out.”

Finally, we had Sutter Home Family Vineyards 2009 California white zinfandel ($4.99). Sutter Home was the originator of white zin. We thought it was too sweet and too artificial, while seemingly watered down at the same time, but Jason loved it.

“I’m almost to (calling it) ‘yummy,’ ” he said. “I like it. I don’t know why I like it, but I do.”

Cheers!