Zinfandel: A History of a Grape and Its Wine (California Studies in Food and Culture)
Wine historians have long debated the true origins of America's unique wine grape, zinfandel. Though much of today's zinfandel harvest goes to produce sweet and insipid jug roses, more and more oenophiles have come to appreciate zinfandel's big, peppery, full-bodied red wines that stand with the world's best. Through meticulous research, Sullivan demonstrates that the zinfandel grape came to California, not through the Hungarian Agoston Haraszthy in the 1860s, but from decades-earlier shipments of vinifera varieties from New England nurseries. The grape gradually spread throughout California's vineyards until winemakers discovered that zinfandel wine could rival its French competitors when treated knowledgeably and respectfully. The robust economy of the 1980s meant fat times for growers of premium zinfandel, and the variety's popularity grew as vintners experimented with new styles. The discovery in the 1990s that Italy's primitive grape may be identical with the zinfandel set off competition between Old World and New World to see if wine tasters could distinguish one country's wine from the other's. Wine buffs, scholars, and historians will appreciate the author's painstaking archival search.Mark KnoblauchCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved