CaliforniaZinfandel is a bold, high-alcohol red grape that found its signature home in California, though it's genetically identical to Italy's Primitivo and Croatia's Tribidrag. Left to ripen fully, it produces jammy wines packed with blackberry, black pepper, and anise flavors and hearty tannin; it's also the grape behind the famously sweet, pink White Zinfandel that introduced many American drinkers to wine in the 1980s. Uneven ripening within a single cluster gives Zinfandel unusual flavor complexity.
Also known as Crljenak Kaštelanski, Kratošija.
Primary flavors
Blackberry Black pepper Cherry Raspberry
Styles
Bold red Dessert
Also called (separate grapes)
Lineage
Plavac Mali is a crossing of Zinfandel.
Grown in
California
Paso Robles
Sonoma County, California
Central Coast
Columbia Valley
Croatian wine
India
McLaren Vale
Napa Valley
Oregon
Santa Barbara County
Texas
Washington
Also try