Magazine of wine 

Zinfandel is a distinctive red grape varietal that over the years has regained the respect it lost during the evolution of the illustrious White Zinfandel crusade of the 80’s. Its followers are typically fun loving and casual about their approach to wine, although they remain patriotic and extremely loyal to this grape. Its origin for the past several decades has been rather elusive with the discovery that it was a genetic match to the Primitivo grape from southern Italy’s coastal region of Puglia. Its DNA was also traced to the obscure Crljenak Kaštelanski, “the red grape of Kastela” and the 16th century Tribidrag grape from Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast. Regardless of its parents or surname, Zinfandel made the transatlantic journey to the United States in the 1800’s and became well established in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada during the gold rush period. By the 1880’s, nearly half of the plantings in California were Zinfandel.