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- Drew - 01-31-2001
Here's an article from the Sacramento Bee that I found interesting. Drew
A zinfandel by any other name? Maybe
By Mike Dunne
Bee Food Editor
(Published Jan. 31, 2001)
By all appearances, Gregorio Perrucci enjoyed himself immensely at the 10th annual Zinfandel Festival in San Francisco on Saturday.
He'd come all the way from the far southern Italian region of Puglia to pour wines of the Accademia Dei Racemi.
Of the 255 wineries on hand, Accademia Dei Racemi was the only one from outside California.
So here was Perrucci, studiously pouring a zinfandel and two primitivos.
Primitivo? What's that? Wasn't this a zinfandel festival?
Therein lies the crux in a tale of competition, animosity and mystery.
While business for Perrucci wasn't as brisk as it was at many other tables, he didn't look as if he was being scorned by many of the 9,200 tasters circulating through two massive pavilions at Fort Mason.
He was, however, at the center of an international viticultural controversy.
At issue is whether Italian vintners should label and promote as zinfandel the wine they long have called primitivo.
No, say several zinfandel specialists in the United States, jealously guarding the only wine grape that has flourished here more than anywhere else.
They point out that federal officials consider the two varieties different, and forbid primitivo to be called zinfandel.
All the Italians are trying to do, snort several California vintners, is unfairly exploit the good name zinfandel to raise the profile of obscure primitivo. Californians made zinfandel the global success it is through experimentation, determination and patience, and now Italian winemakers simply want to jump on their grape gondola, they rail.
The Italians, however, have two important allies. One is the European Union, which considers zinfandel and primitivo identical varieties, and allows primitivo to be labeled zinfandel.
Italians also have on their side modern science: Genetic typing has determined that zinfandel and primitivo are the same variety.
"For purposes of varietal labeling, they're the same variety," says Carole Meredith of the University of California, Davis, whose DNA research has defined the genetic makeup of several wine-grape varieties.
This is an aria Perrucci and his colleagues in Italy appreciate. "If the DNA is the same, the name should be the same. In view of this new scientific research, if we have to stop (using the zinfandel label for primitivo), that is not right," Perrucci says.
Nonetheless, California zinfandel specialists, largely through the promotional group Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (ZAP), have urged federal authorities to consider preventing foreign as well as domestic primitivo from being marketed as zinfandel.
While primitivo from Italy and zinfandel from California may be identical genetically, all sorts of factors, from varied grape clones to diverse farming practices, yield wines distinctly different in style, note ZAP officials.
Thus, if Italian primitivo were labeled zinfandel, consumers could be confused about just what kind of wine they'd be getting, they argue.
That view, however, isn't shared by all of California's zinfandel producers.
Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards at Cupertino, one of the state's more seasoned zinfandel artists, predicted Saturday that ZAP's members ultimately will accept the scientific evidence and petition federal authorities to allow primitivo to be called zinfandel.
Even Robert Biale, ZAP's new president, acknowledges that the issue may be resolved gracefully, with "zinfandel" and "primitivo" ultimately used interchangeably both in the United States and abroad.
"We would like to see them kept separate, but genetically they are the same," concedes Biale. Consumers concerned about different styles, he indicated, just will have to become accustomed to noting whether the bottle of zinfandel or primitivo they are considering is from California, Italy or elsewhere.
In Washington, D.C., meanwhile, Susan Stewart, chief of the alcohol labeling and formulation division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, says federal authorities are thinking of letting "zinfandel" and "primitivo" be used interchangeably on wine labels, but the matter still is being studied and no decision is imminent.
Even if federal authorities agree that the terms are synonymous, at least two California winemakers who bottle both zinfandel and primitivo will continue to label them separately.
Leon Sobon, whose family owns Shenandoah Vineyards and Sobon Estate wineries in Amador County east of Sacramento, says his zinfandel and primitivo produce wines with different characteristics, that he likes the primitivo so much he's expanding his plantings, and that regardless of what federal authorities determine he still will call primitivo primitivo and zinfandel zinfandel.
"Our primitivo (wine) reminds me of zinfandel (wine), but it's more a claret style. Genetically the grapes are identical, but the bunches look different and ripen differently, and while the leaves are exactly the same shape the backs of the zinfandel leaves are fuzzy and hairy and are prone to spider mites. If the primitivo leaves have any hairs they're real fine and don't attract the mites. Primitivo makes an absolutely different wine. It doesn't have the spectrum of flavors you get in zinfandel, but I will continue to make it."
Jeff Runquist, owner of Jeff Runquist Wines in Ripon, makes zinfandel and primitivo from separate blocks of a single vineyard in the Shenandoah Valley of Amador County, and will continue to label them individually "until I get too frustrated to tell the difference" between the varietals.
By his early experience with primitivo -- his 1999 is his first vintage with the varietal -- the grape has the potential to produce wines as deep, rich and intense as zinfandel but without alcohols quite as high as often are encountered in zinfandels.
While Sobon, Runquist and other California vintners are exploring primitivo, Perrucci is exploring zinfandel, and also likes what he is finding. The zinfandel he poured Saturday wasn't primitivo in drag but inarguably zinfandel, originating at a Sonoma County vineyard owned by Ridge Vineyards of Cupertino.
He got the Sonoma vine cuttings six years ago, planted them in Puglia, and now was back in California to show off the finished wine. "I'd heard about zinfandel and just wanted to see the differences," Perrucci said.
Among those impressed were Ridge's Paul Draper: "He has some incredible wines, with the zinfandel having some of the richness and fruit of zinfandel."
- chittychattykathy - 02-04-2001
Thanks!
- winoweenie - 02-05-2001
I`ll drink to that! ( A 96 Biale Old Crane Zin). Way to go Drewski. WW
- Thomas - 02-05-2001
Thanks, a great article. Hope the BATF doesn't come up with a name like Zinfanitivo or Primiandel!
- Innkeeper - 02-05-2001
Does this mean the score is: Italy 1, Croatia 0?