And worst of all, many of these wines sell for $40 and more, mainly to those hardy souls who dote on such wines.

In the hands of the right people, Zinfandel still makes a lighter-styled red wine, which I discovered last week when asked to judge Zinfandels as a judge at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair in Santa Rosa.

Among the wines we evaluated were 52 priced no higher than $25 a bottle, and what was evident was that at a price lower than many of the in-demand, high-alcohol wines, consumers still have a chance to buy some delicious red wines that have better balance than do their pricier counterparts.

Two regions of Sonoma County scored best in our double-blind analysis -- Russian River Valley and Dry Creek Valley. The Best of Class Zinfandel among these wines was the delightful 2006 Alexander Valley Vineyards Redemption Zinfandel ($24) with its superb strawberry-like fruit and peppery aftertaste.

I also loved the field-blended 2006 Forchini from Dry Creek Valley ($23), the more claret-like 2006 Taft Street from Russian River ($22) and the 2005 Mosaic Zinfandel (Russian River Valley) from the Francis Vineyard ($24).

In fact, 36 of the 52 wines in the lower-priced class got medals, indicating that the judges appreciated the more restrained style of the wines.

To be sure, many of these wines topped 14 percent alcohol, but many also were well balanced and nicely made.

Wine of the Week: 2006 Sebastiani Zinfandel, Sonoma County ($15) -- A stylish red wine with more balance and subtle nuances than overblown richness. Wine maker Mark Lyon has made here a lovely lower-alcohol (13.5 percent) Zin with the acidity to allow it to match nicely with pizza, one of the original goals of the wine.