Wines made from Zinfandel grapes of Vinos de Pago
Discover the best wines made with Zinfandel as a single variety or as a blend of Vinos de Pago.
From Croatia where it is called crljenak kastelanski or pribidrag. According to genetic analyses carried out by Professor Carole Meredith of California University in Davis (United States), it is related to the Croatian plavac mali and Zinfandel. It is also found in South Africa, New Zealand, Chile, Brazil, Germany, Bulgaria, Albania, Italy under the name of Primitivo, Malta, Greece, Portugal and to some extent in Croatia. In the United States (California), it is one of the most widely planted grape varieties, having been introduced in the 1830s well before Primitivo. In France, it is registered in the official catalogue of vine varieties on the A1 list under the name Primitivo.
Vinos de Pago, often abbreviated to VP, is a relatively New category of wine classification in Spain. It was introduced in 2003, to cover individual wineries whose wines fell outside the existing DO system (geographically or stylistically) but were nevertheless of consistently high quality. As of 2017, there were more than a dozen VPs, all of which are notable exceptions in regions not generally associated with high quality wines. More than half are in Castilla-La Mancha, and the rest in Navarra and Utiel-Requena.