Grape variety
Zinfandel
Zinfandel, Primitivo in Puglia: a Californian icon with Adriatic roots, the DNA proof, its style, regions and what to eat with it.
- Colour
- Red; White Zinfandel is a rosé wine
- Origin
- Adriatic coast (Croatia or Montenegro, disputed): DNA-identical to Crljenak Kaštelanski, Tribidrag and Kratošija; Primitivo in Puglia
- Main regions
- California (Lodi, Sonoma, Paso Robles, Amador County, Napa), Puglia (Primitivo di Manduria)
- Typical aromas
- Blackberry, raspberry, black pepper, clove; powerful and high in alcohol
- Classic pairing
- Barbecue and spare ribs, burgers, pizza, pasta with meat sauce
- Synonyms
- Primitivo (Italy), Crljenak Kaštelanski and Tribidrag (Croatia), Kratošija (Montenegro)
In California Zinfandel was the “mystery grape”: for decades nobody knew where the variety came from. DNA supplied the answer. In the 1990s it was first shown that Apulia’s Primitivo and California’s Zinfandel are one and the same vine. Then in 2001 a team around Carole Meredith of the University of California, Davis, working with Croatian researchers, found a few vines of an almost extinct variety, Crljenak Kaštelanski, in Dalmatia near Kaštela, close to Split, genetically identical to Zinfandel. The older Dalmatian name Tribidrag, recorded as early as the 15th century, denotes the same vine.
Where the grape was born is disputed: in Montenegro the same vine grows under the name Kratošija, studies of genetic diversity lean towards Montenegro, while Croatian researchers see good historical evidence for Dalmatia. What is certain is that it is a parent of Plavac Mali, the main red grape of the Dalmatian coast; the other parent is Dobričić, an old variety from the island of Šolta. It reached America in the 1820s through East Coast nurseries; in the early 1830s vines were offered in Boston under the name “Zinfindal”, and the vine came to California with the Gold Rush of the 1850s, where it is today among the state’s most important grapes.
Zinfandel is a grape with character. The fruit ripens unevenly: in one bunch half-raisined berries hang beside berries that are still green, and the sugar climbs high, so the wines often reach 14 to 16 per cent alcohol. California has about 14,000 hectares (a little over 34,000 acres), more than a third of them in San Joaquin County around Lodi, where some of the state’s oldest vines grow. In Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma the wine is often fresh and fruity, in Amador County big and jammy, in Paso Robles soft and round. White Zinfandel plays a role of its own: a sweet rosé born in 1975 from a stuck fermentation at Sutter Home, which became hugely popular.
In Italy Zinfandel became Primitivo, a name derived from primativus, “early”: the grape ripens early. In Puglia it has been grown since the 19th century at the latest. Primitivo di Manduria, from the area around Taranto, is dense, dark and powerful; it also exists as a sweet Dolce Naturale with DOCG status, and Gioia del Colle has its own DOC. In the United States Zinfandel and Primitivo are labelled separately although the vines are genetically linked; the vigour and bunch size of the clones differ. Spicy, fruity wines go with barbecue, burgers, pizza and pasta with meat sauce; a powerful Primitivo with grilled meat, lamb and strong cheese.