More Grape Mysteries

January, 2010

You may have tried a wine variety called Zinfandel on a visit to the United States, in particular California, or happened across one of the few available in the UK. A red grape that has ebbed and flowed in popularity, Zinfandel is like the Shiraz of California, capable of producing big jammy spicy wines, some of high quality. However it has also been the workhorse of the West Coast wine industry since the Goldrush in the 1840’s, through Prohibition, into the 21st Century, being used to make fortified wine, white wine, dessert wine, rosé and sparkling wine as well as dry red. 

Zinfandel is capable of growing large crops and is particularly suited to warmer climates hence its popularity in California however it tends to ripen very unevenly with huge bunches and large berries that sometimes get crushed as they grow causing potential rot and disease problems. 

This uneven ripening is a drawback but can introduce interesting flavours and complexity to the wines with a mixture of ripe berry flavours, exotic spicy elements such as star anise, allspice and green herbal notes. It is a versatile variety that has adapted to survive changing consumer tastes and fashions. 

Zinfandel for many years was thought to have come to California from New England as a table grape but as it is not a classic French variety little more was known about its origins.    

In the 1960s whilst on a visit to Italy Professor Austin Goheen from the University of California, Davis (UCD) tasted wines from the south of the country called Primitivo and considered them to be very similar to Zinfandel. By 1972 after further scientific research it was established that indeed Zinfandel and Primitivo were the same variety. What was less clear was which came first. Was Primitivo introduced to the US or, as some thought, were cuttings of Zinfandel introduced into Italy in the late 1800s after the phylloxera scourge had devastated Europe’s vineyards?  

There was also a suggestion made in the 1970s that Primitivo was also one and the same as a Croatian variety called Plavac Mali, but by 1982 it was found that they were similar but not exactly the same. 

In the 1990s Zinfandel enjoyed a resurgence in popularity and renewed respect with a group of passionate US producers forming the Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP) to promote the variety and wines as well as to fund research. 

As a result another professor from UCD Carole Meredith was able to use DNA fingerprinting to determine that Zinfandel and Primitivo were different clones of the same variety, perhaps originally sourced from Croatia. Further research conducted by Meredith and the University of Zagreb established that Zinfandel/Primitivo was in fact one of the parents of Plavac Mali, the other parent being an obscure variety called DobriÄ�ić from the island of Solta in the Adriatic Sea.   

In the 2000s investigations continued and samples of grape vines were collected along the Dalmatian coast before, by using DNA fingerprinting, a match was found with one individual vine, a local red variety called Crljenak Kaštelanski from the coastal area known as Kastel Novi. 

So it is now thought that Zinfandel arrived in California from New England after being sourced from Austria who in turn got the vines from Croatia. Primitivo was either sourced from Austria also or direct from Croatia. First records attribute its introduction to the Apulia region of Italy to a priest. A small amount of Primitivo, whose name literally means early ripening, has been planted in California and it does ripen earlier than Zinfandel and have slightly different flavour characteristics. 

Californian Zinfandels as dry red wine can range from being quite fruity and approachable to intense big wines with red and black fruit characters, savoury and spicy elements, quite high in alcohol and often matured in oak with reasonably firm tannins. The best versions are quite exuberant and powerful but still have balance and poise. 

Primitivos tend to be more brambly, juicy and the spice is more to the peppery end of the spectrum. Less oak is used or is less apparent generally. 

I suggest an interesting excuse for a drink would be to purchase a few Primitivos and Zinfandels and compare the two whilst devouring some portion of a beast i.e. a good steak, roast beef or decent sausages. 

Tanners Wine Merchants have a selection of both Zinfandels and Primitivos whilst Corney & Barrow and the Colchester Wine Company each stock a Primitivo.