Portal:Wine/Selected grape/1
Zinfandel is a variety of red grape planted in over 10 percent of California wine vineyards. DNA fingerprinting has revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grape Crljenak Kaštelanski, and also the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in the region of Apulia, the "heel" of the Italian boot.
Zinfandel is typically made into a robust red wine, but in the USA a semi-sweet rosé wine called White Zinfandel has six times the sales of the red wine. Zinfandel has such high sugar levels that in the USA the grapes were originally grown for eating as fruit, and this sugar can be fermented into high levels of alcohol, sometimes 15% or more.
The taste of the red wine depends on the ripeness of the grapes from which it is made. Red berry fruits like raspberry predominate in wines from cooler areas such as the Napa Valley, whereas blackberry, anise and pepper notes are more common in wines made in warmer areas such as Sonoma County, and in wines made from the earlier-ripening Primitivo clone. (Full article...)