For years, no one really knew where Zinfandel came from, so in typically American style, we made it our own. Zin became California's grape like Riesling is the grape of Germany and Pinot Noir is the grape of Burgundy. California Zinfandels are often similar to Americans themselves: loud, brawny, a barbeque lover with bold flavors and plenty of opinion. Zinfandel inspires such passion in the U.S. that it even has its own professional organization, aroma wheel, and annual festival.
Finally scientists did DNA testing on Zinfandel and discovered it came from the same stock as Italian Primitivo and Croatian Crljenak. Now here's where the grape gets interesting. When wine geeks talk about terroir, or the sense of "place" you can taste in a wine, they're referring to everything from the specific minerals and elements in the soil that help flavor the grape to the region's climate to the vineyard's altitude and relative position to the sun. All of these elements add up to taking what would be a generic grape that tastes the same no matter where it's produced (like when you're on the road and all the restaurants look scary, and then you find a Panera and think, well at least I can get a decent sandwich), and making it into something completely distinct.
With Zinfandel and Primitivo, the two, though genetically twins, are more like cousins when you throw terroir into the mix. Zinfandel/Primitivo is a versatile grape, able to make light and fruity wines like Beaujolais and deep, dark, alcoholic, jammy wines, which represents the style of most American Zins.
Continue reading "Wine of the Week: Primitivo" after the jump.
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