White Zinfandel

White Zinfandel, often abbreviated as White Zin, is an off-dry to sweet, pink-colored rosé wine. White Zinfandel is made from the Zinfandel wine grape, which would otherwise produce a bold and spicy red wine. As such, it is not a grape variety but a method of processing Zinfandel grapes. As of February 2006, White Zinfandel accounted for 10% of all wine sold by volume, making it the third most popular "varietal" in the United States. [http://www.winebusiness.com/SalesMarketing/webarticle.cfm?dataId=42231 Wine Business Insider] , March 272006] Demand for White Zinfandel has been falling in recent years, but it still outsells red Zinfandel 6:1 by volume.

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Historically an inexpensive jug wine, White Zinfandel is a that is sweet, soft, and low in alcohol, making it a popular choice with those who would not otherwise drink wine. It occupies a similar market position to that of Mateus Rosé in Europe. The sugar content can make White Zinfandel taste almost like a fruit punch, although some examples have crisp acids and are balanced in their own way. White Zinfandel is typically manufactured for immediate consumption rather than for aging.

History of White Zinfandel

Zinfandel was first made into a rosé wine in 1869 by the El Pinal Winery in Lodi, California. The resulting wine was thought of highly enough that California viticultural commissioner Charles Wetmore, the later founder of Cresta Blanca Winery, advocated Zinfandel's use as a white wine grape.

In the 1970s Sutter Home Winery was a producer of premium Zinfandel red wine in the Napa Valley. To increase concentration in their wines, they used the saignée technique to bleed off some of the grape juice before fermentation, to increase the impact of compounds in the skins on the remaining wine. The excess juice was separately fermented into a dry, almost white wine that Sutter Home called "White Zinfandel."

In 1975, Sutter Home's White Zinfandel experienced a "stuck fermentation", a problem that occurs when the yeast dies out before consuming all of the sugar. [ [http://www.zinfandel.org/about_zin/zinposium/ Zinposium 2002: A Major Event. Vineyard & Winery Management Sep/Oct 2002] ] This problem juice was set aside. Some weeks later the winemaker tasted it, and preferred this accidental result, which was a sweet pink wine. This is the style that became popular and today is known as White Zinfandel, but in the early days was known as Cabernet Blanc or White Cabernet. [Lechmere A (2002) [http://www.decanter.com/news/46411.html First white 'Cabernet Sauvignon' released] "Decanter" May 14, 2002] Sutter Home realized they could sell far more White Zinfandel than anything they had produced to date, and gradually became a successful producer of inexpensive wines. They remain one of the biggest producers of the wine, with annual shipments of over four million cases.

The demand for White Zinfandel resulted in extended commercial viability of old vine Zinfandel vineyards, which saved them from being ripped out. [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/28/WIGFNDS6V81.DTL San Francisco Gate] (2005-07-28).] When the fine wine boom started in the 1980s, demand for red Zinfandel picked up considerably and these vineyards became prized for the low yields from century-old vines. With White Zinfandel outselling red Zinfandel 6:1 by volume, there's not enough juice left over from red wine production to satisfy demand for White Zinfandel. So Sutter Home (and most producers today) grow grapes specifically for use in White Zinfandel, in places like the Central Valley of California. Production costs are substantially lower and fruit quality is not as important to the final taste as it would be in a dry table wine.

See also

*California wine
*Oeil de Perdrix, the style of wine that Sutter was making that lead to White Zinfandel

References