--For 14 years, Rhoda Stewart lived the life of the ultimate zinfandel enthusiast. She'd jump in her car, drive to a region of California where zinfandel is grown, which means just about everywhere, and interview growers and vintners about their equally passionate fascination with a variety virtually unknown to much of the rest of the wine world.

Now the insights she gleaned from all those treks have been pressed into a 425-page journal, the aptly named "A Zinfandel Odyssey" ($60, PWV Inc.), which nicely balances technical information about viticulture and enology with warm personal anecdotes involving many of the people she visited, including most of the state's major zinfandel players. By phone, I caught up with Stewart the other day in her office at Napa Valley College, where she is a professor of English.

Q: Why zinfandel? Why not cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay or merlot?
A: Because zinfandel has this mysterious checkered past. When I came to this region (Napa Valley in 1978), people were pulling zinfandel out here, but I also was meeting people like Leon Sobon (of Shenandoah Vineyards in Amador County) who were putting zinfandel vines in. Why were growers taking out zinfandel vines down here but not up there? I was getting these mixed messages, which made me want to learn more about it. There were a lot of questions to be asked, and I like a mystery.

Q: Given that it's been grown in California for nearly 150 years and is so widespread here, why isn't zinfandel taken more seriously by connoisseurs?
A: It didn't originate in France or Italy or Germany. It didn't have that pedigree. And during Prohibition, it was so adaptable it got associated with fortified and other cheap, everyday table wines. It was the kid from the wrong side of the tracks trying to get a job at Harvard. He was bright and talented but he also had these rough edges.

Q: A lot of the vintners you interviewed talked of all the grape-growing and winemaking changes they've adopted over the years. Does this mean they still are a long way from mastering zinfandel?
A: I think most of them pretty much have achieved their goals of making a beautiful wine that commands a high price because it is so good. The average price for zinfandel down here (in Napa) is between $25 and $30. It has to be a pretty good wine to sell at that price. The ones dedicated to it pretty well have figured out what to do with the grapes and are doing a good job to command that kind of price.

Q: What thread ties together all of the state's zinfandel growers and vintners?
A: The creative opportunity you have with zinfandel. You have to be creative and imaginative to make a good zinfandel. Joel Peterson (of Ravenswood Winery in Sonoma) said there are no established rules and practices for zinfandel.

Q: The best buys in California zinfandel are coming from what region?
A: El Dorado County wines still are a great value. Over Labor Day weekend, I got a Boeger Winery Walker Vineyard zinfandel on special for under $15. That's like giving it away. Amador County also still is a pretty good deal, though they run a little higher, but they've been around longer. Cucamonga Valley zinfandel from Galleano, Filippi, Thornton and Hart are still really good values. And Lodi - Lucas, for example, and Ravenswood's Lodi appellation, Turley's "Dog Town" Lodi appellation zinfandel, Mondavi's Woodbridge reserve bottling, and Peirano Estate.

Q: Is there anything about the style of zinfandel these days that concerns you?
A: The concern I hear is that because they've improved winemaking so much, today's zinfandels are smoother and softer, they're nicely finished with the best oak, but they're no longer everyman's everyday wine. Galleano may be the last jug zinfandel you can get. Those old jug wines have been replaced by zinfandels like Mondavi's Woodbridge, Rancho Zabaco's Dancing Bull, Ravenswood's Vintner's Blend and Rosenblum's Vintner's Select, but they aren't equivalent to the nice, old, peasant-style jug wines you could put on the table at lunch. That was a tradition that kept zinfandel alive. But except for Galleano's jug, you can't find it. That concerns a lot of people. If you make zinfandel too expensive, you price it out of the market that built it.

Q: Many of the growers and winemakers you interviewed talked of the pros and cons of "old vine" zinfandels. How old is an "old vine"?
A: "Old vine" on a label is a marketing strategy and nothing more, and they admit that. An old vine could be 80 years old or it could be 40, and some say an old vine can be as young as 10. Most people will tell you that if given two bottles of wine, one from vines 75 years old, one from vines 10 years old, you probably couldn't tell which is which if they were from good regions. "Old vines" is marketing. It's a good approach, but it doesn't tell you whether you will like the wine better.
"A Zinfandel Odyssey" is for sale at Borders; Tower; the book store at the University of California, Davis; the wine shop Beyond Napa; and several wineries in the Sierra foothills.

About the Writer: The Bee's Mike Dunne can be reached at (916) 321-1143 or mdunne@sacbee.com.