Julie McLaughlin

Americans have baseball, apple pie and now Zinfandel. Zinfandel’s origin has been a hotly disputed topic for years; it was long thought to be an offspring of the Primitivo grape, grown in the Puglia district of Italy’s southeast. Now, genetic researchers have linked Zinfandel’s parental lineage to Croatia, where DNA matches have been made with a variety locally known by the name of Crljenak Kasteljanski (I can’t say it either). But what we know as Zinfandel today, grown widely in the state of California, is so distinctly different from anything European, that it can be considered a genuine article of America. Zinfandel is to California what jazz is to New Orleans — an authentic treasure that no others can lay claim to. And what grape could be a better ambassador for California than the laid-back and always amiable Zinfandel? California could have no better calling card.

Zinfandel has had a tumultuous past and even now consumers are mixed in their views of this iconic grape. But as California struggled to emerge as a serious wine industry in the 1970s, Zinfandel played an important role in keeping people interested in local wines. Thousands of acres were planted with Zinfandel before prohibition, but as people’s tastes were changing from reds to sweet German whites in the ’70s, there was pressure to tear up these treasures and plant white grapes. At Sutter Home they were already busy producing dry rosé wines and (rumour has it) in 1975 a fermentation gone awry left some sweetness in the wine. The winemaker tasted the finished product and liked it better. Just like that, White Zinfandel was born. Consumers drank it up and many more examples followed from wineries such as Gallo and Beringer, quickly making White Zinfandel the most popular wine in California. They didn’t know it at the time, but they were helping to preserve what would be an iconic wine of California just a decade later.

Today, Zinfandel has found a more noble seat in the hierarchy of grapes, as several wineries have latched on to it and made it their central focus. Zinfandel is always a chameleon and differs widely depending on where it is grown. Old vine examples from Contra Costa and Lodi (saved by the white zin craze) produce wines of great depth, rusticity and character from gnarly old vines grown in the sand. Dry Creek is the spiritual home for Zinfandel and top versions here display dark, ripe fruit with hints of cherry and lingering spices. In the Russian River Valley you usually find more polished examples with pure blueberry fruit and lower alcohol, making for softer, more subtle wines. Paso Robles crafts many of California’s most notable examples and these always display great richness, intensity and the notable bramble character associated with the grape. The Sierra Foothills is another great spot for Zinfandel and these deliver the simple jammy flavours so many people love in a good Zin.

Of course Napa Valley chimes in with some more serious examples of what Zinfandel can be; but most folks in Napa have their heads firmly in the Cabernet camp. Zinfandel, good as it can be here, is often an afterthought.

I will always remember my first taste of Zinfandel. It was wild, generous and mysterious — not polished, but not really wanting to be. Zinfandel is confusing — from its lineage, its journey to California or the debate over how it should be made. There are many that consider it to be a less serious grape, but perhaps these people have forgotten along the way why we drink wine. Do you always want your wine to be so serious? After all, we drink wine to have fun, relax and enjoy life. What better way than with a glass of juicy, ripe and easygoing Zinfandel in your hand? It’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face every time.

• 2007 Shooting Star Zinfandel, Lake County, $18.95 — Flavours of ripe cherry and strawberry jam will have you pounding glass after glass of this easy to like chum of a wine. Exercise caution.

• 2007 Marietta Zinfandel, Sonoma County, $28.95 — Spicy and earthy flavours make this the perfect wine to snuggle up with a pulled pork sandwich.

• 2007 Four Vines Old Vine Cuvee, California, $20.95 — Juicy and delicious working-class wine that never fails to make you happy.