Zinfandel: A History of a Grape and Its Wine (California Studies in Food and Culture, 10) (Hardcover)

by Charles L. Sullivan (Author) "CHARLES SULLIVAN'S TIMELY BOOK PRESENTS A FULL HISTORY OF THE grape that is at the heart of California's contribution to the world of fine wine..." (more)
Key Phrases: total wine grape acreage, grape deal, bearing acre, San Francisco, New York, Central Valley (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
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 Knoblauch
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Review
"California has long claimed zinfandel as its own - a (possibly) native grape whose bottled issue included, in the 1970s, high-alcohol red wines best suited for drinking with takeout pizza and, in the 1980s, blush wines ("white" zinfandels) that strongly appealed to people who didn't really like wine. It's been mainly in the last decade that zin has begun to be taken seriously by wine makers and wine drinkers alike. And it's been in the same interval, ironically, that the story of its being native to California has been debunked as myth. That story is ably told by Charles L. Sullivan in Zinfandel: A History of a Grape and Its Wine (California, $24.95)."--"San Francisco Bay Guardian

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 246 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (September 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520239695
• ISBN-13: 978-0520239692
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #510,420 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Info worth knowing, October 25, 2007

By	John Matthesen "Global Citizen" (Bay Area, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Anyone who is interested in wine might want to read this, but if you like Zinfandel, then I'd put it on the absolute required list. It is not a great book to read, possibly a bit on the dry side ;-) but it IS accurate, and it tells an incredibly important story. This is the story of one of the world's most unique wines, one that is almost exclusively American. Which is why it is so important to read this book and learn about where this grape comes from originally, and how it worked it's way into the modern Zinfandel we know today.

One of the most important things to learn from this book is the truth behind the often cited Count Haraszthy story. This was a story I believed and repeated for years. I'm personally glad to find out I was wrong about that whole tale. It would be great to have lots more people find out about this as well. The truth isn't nearly as colorful as the fiction about the Count, but it's still fascinating to learn how this grape developed.

So all you ZAP members and Zinfandel lovers - please read this book!