Ampelique Grape Note

Zinfandel

The Californian name for an old Adriatic grape.

Zinfandel is one of California’s great old-vine stories. It settled deeply into warm, dry vineyards in places like Sonoma, Napa, Lodi, Paso Robles, Mendocino, Amador and Contra Costa, where old head-trained vines still give the grape its generous, dark-fruited and slightly wild character. For many wine lovers, Zinfandel feels unmistakably Californian: sunlit, bold, peppery, full of blackberry fruit and often shaped by old vines with twisted trunks and deep roots.

But Zinfandel is not a separate grape from Primitivo. It is part of the same variety now best understood under the older Adriatic name Tribidrag. That makes the story even richer: one grape, with Croatian roots, southern Italian warmth and a Californian old-vine soul.