Parentage — Identical to Puglia's Primitivo; both are Croatia's ancient Tribidrag
blackberry
raspberry jam
black pepper
dried fig
sweet anise
Budbreak
Early
Maturity
Second epoch, but staggered within the bunch
Leaf
Medium, orbicular, five lobes; dark green
Bunch
Medium to large, conical, winged, compact — prone to rot
Berry
Medium to large, spherical, purple-black; thin skin, ripening unevenly — green and raisined on one bunch
America's "mystery grape" arrived on the US East Coast in the 1820s, an unnamed vine from the Austrian imperial nursery collection, and went west with the Gold Rush to become California's own red. Its origins defied ampelographers for more than a century: DNA matched it to Puglia's Primitivo in 1994, and in 2001 both were traced to an ancient Croatian variety, Tribidrag, alias Crljenak Kaštelanski.
The wine is brambly, jammy and heady — blackberry, raspberry jam, pepper and fig — with alcohol that climbs as its uneven bunches raisin. California's peculiar treasure is its old vineyards: head-trained field blends planted in the 1880s still bear fruit, and their Zinfandel carries a depth no young planting imitates.
In the blend
Share of this grape in a typical blend of each wine