WTN: Tribidrag Race

[David M. Bueker]

• 2016 Lagier Meredith Tribidrag - USA, California, Napa Valley, Mt. Veeder (8/2/2021)
  I have been drinking high end Zinfandel…err…Tribidrag for 30 years. It’s really hard to not compare to long term benchmarks like older Ravenswood, Ridge, Turley and some of the Bedrock wines. That said, this wine is distinct. The fruit and spice elements are brightly focused, and there’s an earthy undertone that I don’t get in most Zins. Structure is softening after a few years in the cellar, and with a couple more years some tertiary elements will likely emerge. Good to check in now.

Posted from CellarTracker

https://www.vinodiversity.com/tribidrag ... riety.html

Found the above which is interesting IMHO. At a trade tasting a few years ago, I tried some Italian Primitivo. I asked that they pour the one the least like American Zin. And I was able to discern a difference. Even today, there is debate whether Zin and Primitivo are the same grape. We like both.

And I've found a few vintners who make both. I believe Ladd Cellars is one of them.

Even today, there is debate whether Zin and Primitivo are the same grape.

I don't believe there is any doubt that they are genetically the same - that was proved by Carole Meredith.

But I think Primitivo and Zinfandel have distinct clonal differences one can taste in wine made from them. I understand they have differently sized berries and ripen at different times.

The water (wine?) is muddied now because producers of Primitivo can label their wines as Zinfandel (and vice versa - but AFAIK Italian producers of Primitivo get more money in the USA for wines labelled as Zin than for Primitivo)

The wine Meredith and her husband call Tribidrag is made from Zinfandel grapes. Whether the Tribidrag clone produces a different tasting wine (which I expect it will) we'll have to wait to see when enough Tribidrag vines have been propagated.

The Vinodiversity article just repeats what is in Robinson's Wine Grapes

You can see Carole Meredith herself talking about how she found the origins of Zin in the video here

https://youtu.be/biWXdyEyGgc

[David M. Bueker]

Right Peter - the genetic issue is settled. Same grape.

As for U.S. prices for Italian Primitivo versus Italian Zinfandel, do you have a source? Frankly I have never seen an Italian Zinfandel at retail.

Right Peter - the genetic issue is settled. Same grape.

As for U.S. prices for Italian Primitivo versus Italian Zinfandel, do you have a source? Frankly I have never seen an Italian Zinfandel at retail.

I don't live in the USA, but why would Italian producers label their Primitivo as Zin if it was to their detriment?


Re never seeing Italian 'Zinfandel' in the USA, they're not usually as open as this one in showing the producing region on the front label

https://www.totalwine.com/wine/red-wine ... /176650750

they're more like this

https://www.opiciwinesandspirits.com/wp ... del_fs.pdf
you would see this one the shelf and see no indication it's not from California
ditto
https://www.winetransit.com/ink-monster ... 39119.html

https://www.benashliquors.com/sku55404.html

David Darlington reports on page 1 of Angels Visits: An Inquiry into the Mystery of Zinfandel (1991) of a complaint by Rich Kunde, President of Sonoma Grape Growers of an Italian wine being sold as Zinfandel. The BATF ordered the Italians to desist, but since then Primitivo and Zinfandel have been accepted as synonyms. Last I heard Tribidrag has not, os the Meredith-Lagier 'Tribidrag' has been accepted as a brand name

[David M. Bueker]

I never darken the doors of Total Wine, so not going to run into that.

Marketing ease and pricing are not inextricably linked, so my question about the "more money" (which I presumed meant price per 750ml bottle) stands.

Anyway, I had forgotten the first page of Angels Visits. Read it a while back, and have not gone back to it in years. That said, I was 17 in 1984, so...

I never darken the doors of Total Wine, so not going to run into that.

I gave only one link to Total, but there is more than one Italian Primitivo on sale in the USA labelled as Zinfandel, which you doubted

Why not take a close look at the back label of Zins you don't recognise in store you do frequent.

Marketing ease and pricing are not inextricably linked, so my question about the "more money" (which I presumed meant price per 750ml bottle) stands.

Indeed, but my answer still stands

Why would Italian producers label their Primitivo as Zin if it was to their detriment?

[David M. Bueker]

I said I had never seen one, not that they did not exist.