Primitivo Viray, SJ

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 Kaštelanski and Pribidrag, as well as to the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in Apulia, Italy, where it was introduced in the 18th century, and Kratošija in Montenegro and Macedonia . The grape found its way to the United States in the mid-19th century, where it became known by variations of a name applied to a different grape, likely "Zierfandler" from Austria.

The grapes typically produce a robust red wine, although, in the United States, a semi-sweet rosé (blush-style) wine called White Zinfandel has six times the sales of the red wine. The grape's high sugar content can be fermented into levels of alcohol exceeding 15 percent.

The taste of the red wine depends on the ripeness of the grapes from which it is made. Red berry fruit flavors like raspberry predominate in wines from cooler areas, whereas blackberry, anise and pepper notes are more common in wines made in warmer areas and in wines made from the earlier-ripening Primitivo clone.

History

Europe (6000 BC – 1870)

Archaeological evidence indicates that domestication of ''Vitis vinifera'' occurred in the Caucasus region around 6000 BC, and winemaking was discovered shortly after that. Cultivation of the vine subsequently spread to the Mediterranean and surrounding regions. Croatia once had several indigenous varieties related to Zinfandel, which formed the basis of its wine industry in the 19th century. This diversity suggests that the grapes have been grown in Croatia longer than anywhere else. These varieties were almost entirely wiped out, however, by the phylloxera epidemic of the late 19th century, eventually reducing Zinfandel to just nine vines of locally-known "Crljenak Kaštelanski" discovered in 2001 on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia.

The first documented use of the term ''Primitivo'' appears in Italian governmental publications of the 1870s. The name derives from the terms ''primativus'' or ''primaticcio'', which refer to the grape's tendency to ripen earlier than other varieties. This name's appearance, 40 years after the first documented use of the term ''Zinfandel'', was previously thought to suggest that Primitivo was introduced to Italy from across the Atlantic; however, this hypothesis has become unlikely since the discovery of the vine's Croatian origin.

Primitivo is now thought to have been introduced as a distinct clone into Italy's Apulia region in the 18th century. Don Francesco Filippo Indellicati, the priest of the church at Gioia del Colle near Bari, selected an early ("primo") ripening plant of the Zagarese variety and planted it in Liponti. This clone ripened at the end of August and became widespread throughout northern Apulia. Cuttings came to the other great Primitivo DOC (''denominazione di origine controllata'' or "denomination of controlled origin") as part of the dowry of the Countess Sabini of Altamura when she married Don Tommaso Schiavoni-Tafuri of Manduria in the late 19th century.

United States east coast (1829–1850)

The arrival of Zinfandel in the United States may have been via the Imperial Nursery in Vienna, Austria, which probably obtained the vines during the Habsburg monarchy's control over the Dalmatian territories of the former Republic of Venice.Sullivan
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/ref> George Gibbs, a horticulturist on Long Island, received shipments of grapes from Schönbrunn and elsewhere in Europe between 1820 and 1829. Sullivan suggests that the "Black Zinfardel of Hungary" mentioned by William Robert Prince in ''A Treatise on the Vine'' (1830) may have referred to one of Gibbs's 1829 acquisitions. Webster suggests that the name is a modification of the Hungarian ''tzinifándli'' (''czirifandli''), which derives from the German Zierfandler, a white grape (Grüner Sylvaner) from Austria's Thermenregion.

Gibbs visited Boston in 1830, and Samuel Perkins of that city began selling "Zenfendal" soon afterward. In 1830, Gibbs also supplied Prince with "Black St. Peters," a similar variety that may have come from England, where many vines have "St. Peters" in their names. Little is known about this vine, except that the Black St. Peters that arrived in California in the 1850s was the same as what became known as Zinfandel by the 1870s.

By 1835 Charles M. Hovey, Boston's leading nurseryman, was recommending "Zinfindal" as a table grape. It was soon widely grown in heated greenhouses to produce table grapes as early as June. The first reference to making wine from "Zinfindal" appears in John Fisk Allen's ''Practical Treatise in the Culture and Treatment of the Grape Vine'' (1847). Meanwhile, the fad of hothouse cultivation faded in the 1850s as attention turned to the Concord and other grape varieties that could be grown outdoors in Boston.

California (1850–1933)

Prince and other nurseryman, such as Frederick W. Macondray (future son-in-law of Faxon Atherton), joined the California Gold Rush in the 1850s and took Zinfandel with them. Prince's notebook records that the grape dried "perfectly to Raisin" and that he believed his Zinfandel was the same as the "Black Sonora" he found in California. When the vine known as "Black St. Peters" arrived in California, it was initially regarded as a distinct variety, but by the 1870s, it was recognized as the same grape as Zinfandel.

Sacramento nurseryman A.P. Smith listed "Black St. Peter's" among the 24 grape varieties he was propagating in a sales catalog in 1856 and he exhibited "Zeinfindall" at the state fair in 1858. Joseph W. Osborne planted Zinfandel from Macondray at his Oak Knoll vineyard just north of Napa, and his wine was much praised in 1857. Planting of Zinfandel boomed soon after, and by the end of the 19th century, it was the most widespread variety in California.

These Zinfandel old vines are now treasured for the production of premium red wine, but many were ripped up in the 1920s, during the Prohibition years (1920–1933), but not for the obvious reason. Even during the Prohibition, home winemaking remained effectively legal, p
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/ref> and some vineyards embraced the sale of grapes for making wine at home. While Zinfandel grapes proved popular among home winemakers living near the vineyards, it was vulnerable to rot on the long journey to East Coast markets.Pinney p26 The thick-skinned Alicante Bouschet

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