Zinfandel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zinfandel, also known as Zin, in Europe known as Primitivo, is a red-skinned wine grape. It's also popular in California for its intense fruitiness and lush texture. Typically, Zinfandel tastes of bramble and fresh or fermented red berries. Vintners use Zinfandel grapes to produce a wide range of wine styles including sweet White Zinfandels, light-bodied reds reminiscent of Beaujolais nouveau, full bodied dry reds, sweet late harvest dessert wines, and ports. Most serious wine critics consider White Zinfandel to be insipid and uninteresting, while many also consider the heavy styles to be too high in alcohol, making wines that are too "hot" and food unfriendly.
In the 1990s and 2000s, however, conscientious producers have created ageworthy Zinfandels of remarkable complexity and finesse, although always with great vigour and power.
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[edit] History
Zinfandel was brought to the United States (Long Island) from a varietal collection of the Imperial State Nursery of Vienna in the 1820s. In the cooler climates it was grown in greenhouses. In California the first Zinfandel vineyards were planted in the 1830s. Its popularity grew swiftly, and by the end of the 19th century it became the most widespread variety in the US.
Vintners have grown Zinfandel in quantity for over one hundred years. Many of the oldest wineries in California grow Zinfandel and the vines are now treated almost like historic landmarks. At the start of prohibition Zinfandel was California's most popular and successful variety. During prohibition, limited home winemaking and the production of sacramental wine was allowed, and Zinfandel remained popular with Northern California's home wine makers. However, on the East Coast Zinfandel fell in popularity and was replaced by thicker-skinned varieties. Zinfandel's tight bunches left its thin skins susceptible to rot on the slow train rides to Eastern home wine makers. The creation of White Zinfandel in the 1970s further saved the vines by providing a larger market for the grape. In the 1990s the market for premium wine increased sufficiently that old vine Zinfandel became valuable on its own.
Zinfandel is grown by over 200 producers, and now accounts for over 23% of the total vineyard territory. Its quality and character largely depend on the place of cultivation, the age of the vineyard, and the winemaking technology. Zinfandel became so popular that in 1991 the association of Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP) was founded with the objective to promote the varietal and wine, and support scientific research on Zinfandel — particularly its origin.
[edit] Research on Zinfandel's Origin
Although similar to other varieties of the Vitis vinifera imported from Europe, Zinfandel was long considered "America's vine and wine." The earliest discovery concerning its origin occurred when Austin Goheen, a professor at UC Davis visited Italy in 1967, where he tasted different wines and noticed that the varietal called Primitivo reminded him of Zinfandel. His subsequent comparative study of Zinfandel and Primitivo concluded that they were identical.[1] Geneticist Carole Meredith from UC Davis later confirmed this conclusion using a DNA fingerprinting technique. The fact that Primitivo was introduced in Italy after Zinfandel first appeared in the United States left the question of its origin unsettled, although evidence suggested that it was brought to the Italian region of Puglia from the East Adriatic, indicating that the origin of Zinfandel may lie on the Croatian coast.
Because of its morphologic similarity with Primitivo and Zinfandel, Plavac Mali was first considered Zinfandel's ancestor in the 1980s, a hypothesis that acquired more supporters with the passing of time. In the late 1990s Professor Meredith embarked on a DNA search for the true origin of Zinfandel. Aided by some American producers (including Miljenko Grgić, an American wine-maker of Croatian descent) and her collaborators from the School of Agriculture of the University of Zagreb (Ivan Pejić, Edi Maletić, Jasminka Karoglan Kontić, Nikola Mirošević), she toured Dalmatia and collected over 150 samples of Plavac Mali. DNA testing, however, showed that Zinfandel and Plavac Mali are two different varieties — in fact, Zinfandel is actually a parent of Plavac Mali. Eventually the Croatian scientists Maletić and Pejić found the other parent of Plavac Mali: an ancient variety called Dobričić from the island of Šolta. This narrowed down the search area to the islands of Šolta, Brač, and Čiovo, and the central Dalmatian coastal strip. Meredith and the Croatian scientists embarked on a long, detailed search throughout these regions. Included among the numerous samples was Crljenak Kaštelanski, taken in 2001 from the vineyard of Ivica Radunić in Kaštel Novi. DNA testing confirmed that Crljenak Kaštelanski and Zinfandel have the same genetic profile. The origin of Zinfandel had been found.
Knowledge of Zinfandel's ancestry came close to being lost forever. The existence of Crljenak Kaštelanski could be found in only one vineyard containing thousands of vines and dozens of varieties, of which only nine vines were Zinfandel. Vineyards get replanted periodically, and nobody recognized anything special about this particular vineyard, so it is likely that in a few years Crljenak Kaštelanski may have ceased to exist.
Additional proof of the Croatian origin of Zinfandel came with the discovery that many other Croatian autochthonous varieties are closely related to Zinfandel / Primitivo / Crljenak Kaštelanski – a varietal that Meredith now calls "ZPC."[2]
[edit] Locations
Wineries in the counties of Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Luis Obispo, San Joaquin, Amador, El Dorado, Lake, and Santa Clara (in the Santa Cruz Mountains), and Rancho Cucamonga region of Southern California all produce Zinfandels. Wineries particularly known for their Zinfandel include Ravenswood Winery, Ridge Vineyards, Rosenblum Cellars, and Sutter Home Winery, the last having developed the "White Zinfandel" that became such a popular seller.
[edit] References and notes
- ^ Although genetically identical, the Italian wine Primitivo can be marketed in the U.S. as either Primitivo or Zinfandel; however, U.S. Zinfandel cannot be called Primitivo in Europe.
- ^ "Science as a window to wine history" – lecture by Dr. Carole Meredith
[edit] External links
- Zinfandel Advocates & Producers
- Zinfandel Grapes & Their Wines - Informational Essay on Zinfandel Grapes
- Zinfandel Wine Grape History and Character
- Zinfandel wines in Australia
