SFChron: Bonne on Zinfandel

Very nice article on Zin by JonBonne in today's SFChron:
Bonne:Zinfandel

Some very nice pics of Stev&Carole and Steve's chopped up thumbs. Must be a story behind that??? A Tribidrag from Lagier-Meredith...exciting.
Tom

A Tribidrag from Lagier-Meredith...exciting.

As I read the article, the wine is a California Zinfandel labelled as Tribidrag..

Now I know they are synonyms but Zinfandel has had 150 odd years to acclimatise to California and its not the same IMO as Primitivo from Italy, i.e. although DNA testing shows they are the same there are clonal differences, size of berries and ripening time.

I'd suspect there are similar differences with the Dalmatian Pribidrag mentioned in the story.

There is probably less variation among wines made from Zinfandel/Primitivo/Crljenak/Pribidrag/Kratosija (all synonyms for the same variety) than there is among Pinot noir wines made in different places, but no one argues that they shouldn't all be called Pinot noir.

And Pinot Noir is genetically unstable to boot, so one should expect more variation in it regardless of extent of cultivation.

Mark Lipton