Zinfandel/Primativo

  • Aromas and flavors:  raspberry, berry, black pepper, and raisins, black berry, tobacco
  • Low acidity
  • Zinfandel is a clone of the Croatian variety Crljenak
  • Zinfandel’s genetic twin, the Italian Primitivo, was also originally mutated from Crljenak
  • The very first plantings migrated from Albania or Greece
  • Zinfandel came to the United States in 1820, when New York nurseryman George Gibbs carried back various cuttings from the Imperial Austrian plant species collection
  • Achieved widespread popularity in America as a pink, slightly sweet wine
  • The red wine from zinfandel can be made light and fruity, much like French Beaujolais, or lively, complex and age worthy, like Cabernet or claret or to a ripe, high alcohol style wines that resemble Port
  • Also a component of most California “jug” wines, since it is the most widely planted red wine grape
  • Adaptable to a wide range of soils and climates, its vines tend to be vigorous and productive
  • Also has a frequent tendency to set a second crop
  • Under stress from lack of moisture, it is prone to raisining, (Water management important)
  • Ripens more unevenly than most other varieties and it is not uncommon for green and raisined berries to occur within the same cluster
  • Due to uneven ripening, machine-picking is impractical and a Zinfandel vineyard may often require multiple passes, days apart, to harvest all the fruit with the same level of maturity 
  • The berries can build very high sugar contents, making for a highly alcoholic wine (sometimes up to 17%)
  • Many zinfandel vineyards exist that are 75 to 100 or more years old.
  • Many believe these “old vines” produce the best wine (older vineyards set smaller crops and the grapes tend to ripen more evenly)
  • Probably best enjoyed in its youth, within three to five years of the vintage