Original zin

You can be forgiven for not having the faintest idea what Zinfandel is. Until recently this grape variety, indigenous to California, was little known outside the USA, and even there it enjoyed a mixed reputation.

Today, however, the variety is highly fashionable, and when CAP (the Zinfandel advocates and producers) organised a recent tasting in San Francisco, they were astonished when 10,000 people turned up.

It is believed that Zinfandel is related to Primitivo, a red variety from Apulia that Italian immigrants brought to the USA in the 1830s. How it was transformed into Zinfandel remains a mystery, but few doubt the cousinhood between the two varieties. At his Niebaum-Coppola estate in Napa Valley, film and wine producer Francis Ford Coppola has planted an acre of Primitivo, so soon it will be possible to compare the two varieties grown on neighbouring soils.

Zinfandel achieved its first doubtful fame in 1972 when Bob Trinchero of Sutter Home Winery had the bright idea of vinifying the variety off the skins. An inevitable brief maceration before the pressing of the grapes gave the wine a light pink tint. Blush wine, or white Zinfandel, was born. Sutter Home soon expanded from a small family business into a three-million-case industry.

But Zinfandel devotees scorn such confections. The true glory of the variety is its ability to produce richly flavoured, powerful red wines that, unlike Cabernet Sauvignon, are relatively low in tannin and thus drinkable young. Sheer fruitiness is the most obvious component of well-made Zinfandel, which can reek of plums and cherries and red berries, but alternatively can have more peppery, spicy tones. Most large-scale Zinfandel producers, such as Beringer and Fetzer, offer fruity, lightly oaked, vibrant wines, quite high in alcohol.

Because the variety has never enjoyed the status of French grapes, prices have been low, although this is beginning to change. Industrial giant Gallo started to market a single vineyard - Sonoma Zinfandel - a clear sign the variety is entering the commercial mainstream.

A noble variety

A handful of winemakers have always believed passionately in Zinfandel, not as a source of essentially simple, grapey wines, but as a noble variety capable of great complexity, power and ageing potential. Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards in Santa Cruz, and later Joel Peterson of Ravenswood in the Sonoma Valley, have long specialised in single-vineyard Zinfandels that are among the glories of California.

Both Draper and Peterson have scoured California for old Zinfandel vines. They were not that hard to find: many vineyards preserved plots of the variety that were up to a century old. The old-time growers loved the grape and planted it in ideal locations. Old Zinfandel tends to be planted on hillsides; dry-farmed, not irrigated; head-pruned, not trained on wires; and low-yielding. An old Zinfandel vineyard looks similar to a Grenache vineyard in the southern Rhône.

Many Ridge wines are blends of Zinfandel with varieties such as Petite Sirah or Carignan, not because of wizardry in the cellars, but because many old vineyards were planted with different but complementary vines in the same plot. Ridge uses more than 20 sources for its Zinfandel, and bottles many of the resulting wines separately. Ravenswood prefers undiluted Zinfandel and avoids excessive manipulation of the wine. Peterson does not use cultivated yeasts or filtration.

Zinfandel has been planted in many parts of California and thrives best where days are hot and nights are cool. It is dwindling in Napa, but more common in Sonoma, where it achieves impressive results. The variety is also found in northern regions such as Mendocino; south of San Francisco in San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles; and east of the city in the Sierra foothills, where old Zinfandel wines proliferate in Amador County and where wineries such as Monteviña are based.

Too alcoholic

It is not easy to make superlative Zinfandel. If poorly made, the wine can be jammy and/or over-alcoholic. When the grape ripens, it does so fast, and berries can begin to raisin overnight alongside their healthy neighbours. Unless the grower picks at the right moment, he can end up with wines with 15% or 16% of alcohol.

There was even a vogue, briefly sanctified in the 1970s by Ridge and Mayacamas, for late harvest Zinfandels with about 17% of alcohol and a touch of residual sugar - a kind of unfortified port.

For the restaurateur, the great merit of Zinfandel is that it is a serious red wine at - by Californian standards - an attractive price. Nor does it require cellaring. Even the great wines from Ridge and Ravenswood can be drunk young, although they can be cellared with positive results for five years or more. The simpler wines have all the appeal of a fresh Beaujolais, while the more structured wines are fit to stand beside Cabernet and Merlot on the table. Zinfandels such as Quivira from Sonoma and Frog's Leap from Napa stand between the two extremes: rich and supple, yet elegant and quaffable.

Part of the fascination of Zinfandel is its malleability. In this respect alone it resembles Chardonnay, which can also be transformed in the winery by the winemaker's manipulations. Some wineries favour US oak for Zinfandel; others, such as Ravenswood, prefer a good dose of new French barriques. Some struggle to pick grapes that will not give overly powerful wines; others like the punchy assertiveness of muscular, alcoholic Zinfandel.

This can pose problems for the purchaser, since it is not always evident what the style of the wine is likely to be. In general, you get what you pay for. The single-vineyard wines from Ridge, Ravenswood and Gallo are pricey because of their limited production, but the larger-volume wines from Fetzer, Beringer and Dry Creek are far from expensive in relation to their quality. However, with the growing popularity of the variety in the USA, grape prices, especially from sought-after old vineyards, are rising fast and are bound to be reflected in higher wine prices.

Zinfandel is a good match for steaks and for game such as venison and partridge. The bolder versions will not defeated by grouse or by spicy foods such as curries and chouriço, or more peppery pasta dishes such as penne all'arrabiata.

Zinfandel also works well with soft and creamy cheeses, including Stilton. It is not a wine that benefits much from decanting, though the better examples will open and evolve beautifully in the glass.