Zierfandler is a

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

variety used to make white wine in the

Thermenregion The Vienna Woods (german: Wienerwald) are forested highlands that form the northeastern foothills of the Northern Limestone Alps in the states of Lower Austria and Vienna. The and range of hills is heavily wooded and a popular recreation area w ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. It is also known as Spätrot ("late red") because it turns red just before harvest time. It is traditionally blended with

Rotgipfler Rotgipfler is a grape variety used to make aromatic white wine. It is almost exclusively found in the Gumpoldskirchen district of the Thermenregion in Austria. It is often blended with Zierfandler (which is also known as ''Spätrot'') to mak ...

but is increasingly being sold as a varietal wine. Zierfandler wines are typically elegant and quite sweet, but with much balancing acidity and a nutty bouquet of pistachios and almonds. They are capable of ageing well.

History

Zierfandler is probably a cross between

Roter Veltliner Roter Veltliner is a grape variety used to make white wine. It is found in Austria. Some of the better wines come from the Wagram district of Donauland. Varieties It is believed to be a very old variety, but its parentage has so far not been ...

and something like

Traminer Savagnin or Savagnin blanc (not to be confused with Sauvignon blanc) is a variety of white wine grape with green-skinned berries. It is mostly grown in the Jura region of France, where it is made into Savagnin wine or the famous vin jaune and vi ...

.Documentation Austrian Wine 2005
A "weiss" (white) form is found in Hungary. Zierfandler may be the inadvertent origin of the name

Zinfandel Zinfandel (also known as Primitivo) is a variety of black-skinned wine grape. The variety is grown in over 10 percent of California vineyards. DNA analysis has revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grapes Crljenak Kaštel ...

, which has its roots in a Croatian grape collected by the

Habsburg monarchy The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...

in Vienna. George Gibbs, a horticulturist on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, received several shipments of vines from the Imperial nursery in the 1820s, one of which he called "Black Zinfardel of Hungary".Chapter 2
/ref> This doesn't correspond to any known grape, but Webster suggests that Zinfandel is a corruption of ''tzinifándli'' (''czirifandli''), a Hungarian word derived from the German word Zierfandler.Zinfandel etymology
Merriam-Webster Since Zierfandler is very different from Zinfandel, someone would have had to have mixed up labels along the way.

Distribution and wines

There were 98.24ha in Austria in 2005, less than 0.3% of Austria vineyards, of which 85.03ha were in

. It is traditionally blended with

in that region. These wines, known as Spätrot-Rotgipfler, are a particular speciality of

Gumpoldskirchen Gumpoldskirchen (Central Bavarian: ''Gumpoidskiachn'') is a town in the district of Mödling in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Gumpoldskirchen borders on the municipalities Mödling, Guntramsdorf, Gaaden, Pfaffstätten and Traiskirchen. The ...

, south of Vienna. It is grown in Hungary under the name Cirfandli and in Slovenia as Zerjavina.

Vine and viticulture

The characteristic of the grapes is the way the sides exposed to the sun turns red as they ripen. Zierfandler ripens late, and is prone to

noble rot Noble rot (french: pourriture noble; german: Edelfäule; it, Muffa nobile; hu, Aszúsodás) is the beneficial form of a grey fungus, ''Botrytis cinerea'', affecting wine grapes. Infestation by ''Botrytis'' requires moist conditions. If the we ...

. The leaves are large and 3-5 lobed. The bunches are large, conical and sometimes winged.

Synonyms

Cilifai, Cilifan, Cirfandli, Cirifai, Cirifai Piros, Cirifan, Gumpoldskirchener, Gumpoldskirchener Spätrot, Gumpoldskirchener Spätroth, Kesoei Piros, Kirmizi Zierfahndler, Nemes Cirfandli, Piros Cirfandli, Piroscirfandli, Raifler, Reifler Rot, Roter Raifler, Roter Reifler, Roter Zierfandler, Roth Hensch, Rother Raifler, Rother Zierfahndler, Rothhinschen, Rothreifler, Rotreifler, Rubiner, Spätrot, Zerjavina and Zierfandler Rot.

Notes and references

External links

VIVC Bibliography
{{Wines White wine grape varieties Austrian wine