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 Zinfandel Wine

Zinfandel (or 'Zin' as it is affectionately known in its American homelands) is a dark-skinned red wine grape variety widely cultivated in California. It arrived in the Americas from Europe in the early years of the 19th century, and was an immediate success in its Napa and Sonoma strongholds. It wasn't until DNA research was carried out in California in the 1990s that the variety was confirmed (as had long been suspected) to be Italy's Primitivo under a different name, which is in turn Crljenak Kastelanski, originally from Croatia's Adriatic coast.

Zinfandel has been used to make various styles of wine since it arrived in the United States, including dry and sweet red wines and the famous 'White Zinfandel' blush, created to cater for a white-wine-drinking American consumer base of the 1970s. The arrival of this new wine style in the early 1970s led to an explosion of Zinfandel plantings – a wonderful irony, given that the style was created only to find a use for the swathes of under-used Zinfandel vines already in existence. By the 1990s the popularity of dry red Zinfandel had given these plantings a new raison d'etre, although they were still generating many millions of liters of sweet pink blush every year. Today red Zinfandel has risen to become the signature wine of the United States, not due to the quality of wine it produces, but because it is as close to an 'American' variety as vinifera vines get. The discovery that it was an Italian variety in disguise led to mixed reactions, including pride at the association with a prestigious wine nation such as Italy but also a certain uneasiness that Zinfandel had lost some of its American individuality.

Outside the United States the variety is grown in South Africa and Australia, where it has been bottled as both Zinfandel and Primitivo. It hasn't acquired any particular significance in either of these countries, where it remains something of an obscurity – more a product of a few key producers than an independent grape variety in its own right. Also, when a country has as strong an affinity with a grape variety as Australia does with Shiraz, there is little motivation to bring in and develop a similar variety to compete with it. Cape Mentelle in Margaret River has taken up the reins as an Australian pioneer of Zinfandel, and has made a name for its Cape Mentelle Zinfandel.

Primitivo's star is rising once again in Italy – as evidenced by the promotion of Primitivo di Manduria Dolce Naturale to DOCG status – and it will be interesting to observe the American reaction to this. A number of Californian vineyards (mostly those of Italian heritage) already label their Zinfandel wines as Primitivo, a fashion which may or may not catch on. (© All rights reserved, Wine-Searcher)

Alternative names for this grape variety

Crljenak Kasteljanski

Primitivo

Click on a listed Zinfandel wine below for price and wine store information.

We have found 1,887 wines made from this grape variety, only the first 500 will be shown. Displaying 1 to 25.
Wine Name (by Search Rank, sort by Name)		Region		Avg Price (Ex Tax)
1.	Ridge Vineyards Lytton Springs, California, USA	Dry Creek Valley		£23
2.	Ridge Vineyards Geyserville Zinfandel, Sonoma County, USA	Sonoma County		£23
3.	Seghesio Family Vineyards Zinfandel, Sonoma County, USA	Sonoma County		£14
4.	Duckhorn Vineyards Paraduxx Red, Napa Valley, USA	Napa Valley		£29
5.	Michael-David Winery Seven Deadly Zins Zinfandel, Lodi, USA	Lodi		£10
6.	Beringer Vineyards California Collection White Zinfandel, California, USA	California		£4
7.	Rombauer Vineyards Zinfandel, California, USA	California		£18
8.	Ravenswood Winery Vintners Blend Zinfandel, California, USA	California		£6
9.	Robert Biale Vineyards Black Chicken Zinfandel, Napa Valley, USA	Napa Valley		£27
10.	Turley Wine Cellars Juvenile Zinfandel, California, USA	California		£27
11.	Turley Wine Cellars Old Vines Zinfandel, California, USA	California		£32
12.	Cosentino Winery CigarZin Zinfandel, California, USA	California		£12
13.	Michael-David Winery Earthquake Zinfandel, Lodi, USA	Lodi		£15
14.	Ravenswood Winery Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel, California, USA	Lodi		£9
15.	A. Rafanelli Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley, USA	Dry Creek Valley		£31
16.	Carlisle 'Carlisle Vineyard' Zinfandel, Russian River Valley, USA	Russian River Valley		£32
17.	Cline Cellars Ancient Vines Zinfandel, California, USA	California		£9
18.	Orin Swift Saldo Zinfandel, California, USA	California		£19
19.	Cline Cellars Zinfandel, California, USA	California		£7
20.	Seghesio Family Vineyards Home Ranch Zinfandel, Alexander Valley, USA	Alexander Valley		£25
21.	Buehler Vineyards Zinfandel, Napa Valley, USA	Napa Valley		£12
22.	Caymus Vineyards Zinfandel, Napa Valley, USA	Napa Valley		£24
23.	Klinker Brick Winery Old Vine Zinfandel, Lodi, USA	Lodi		£11
24.	Rosenblum Cellars North Coast Zinfandel, California, USA	North Coast		£11
25.	Ravenswood Winery Single Vineyard Teldeschi Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley, USA	Dry Creek Valley		£20
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