Wine News: Tasting Wine: Deep fruit

"Zinfandel is as American as baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and "Desperate Housewives." Or is it?

The origins of this lush, fruity grape are still not quite clear. It is related to primitivo, which is grown in southern Italy, and Blaufrankisch (aka Lemberger), which is found in Austria and Germany, and it is believed that all three have a common ancestor from Croatia. How and when this grape or a precursor arrived on the West Coast, no one knows for sure.

A little zin is grown outside of California. South African wineries have experimented with the grape, and to be fair there are a few good zins made in Australia such as Kangarilla Road from McClaren Vale. To the north of us, there are some very old plantings of zinfandel from Oregon such as Sineann Old Vines, which comes from a 100-year-old vineyard. Nonetheless, the zinfandels from California are without question the pinnacle."

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