THE ORIGIN OF CALIFORNIA
ZINFANDEL HAS BEEN DISCOVERED IN CROATIA
THE
SEARCH FOR THE ORIGIN OF
ZINFANDEL
By
Mike Grgic of Grgic Hills Winery
My
family owned a small vineyard and winery in Croatia where I was born. It was my
duty as part of the family to take care of the vineyard and winery every year.
Our vineyard was a mixture of many varietals of grapes and I could remember and
recognize each varietal by heart. One of those grape varietals was PLAVAC MALI.
In
August, 1959, 1 arrived in Napa Valley to work at Souverain Cellars &
Vineyard. They had Zinfandel grapes around the winery and I remember looking at
those vines and feeling like I had come home to the same grapevines I had left
behind in Croatia. The canes, leaves, clusters, berries, color and size of the
berries were all familiar to me ... they looked like Plavac Mali in Croatia.
As
time passed, several articles mentioned the similarity of Zinfandel and Plavac
Mali. Dr. Jerry Seps of Storybook Mountain Winery in Napa Valley visited
Croatia and he wrote a very promising article about fmding the origin of
Zinfandel. Dr. Olmo, of the University of California, Davis, got samples of
Plavac Mali from Croatia but did not agree that they were the same as
Zinfandel.
It
was at a Zinfandel symposium at Sutter Home Winery in St. Helena where I heard
a discussion on how Zinfandel got to America. There were many versions and
guesses. One lady claimed that Zinfandel was taken from the nurseries in
Austria (Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time) and
brought to Long Island about 1830 by Gibbs and then taken to California where
it was introduced to Napa and Sonoma counties by Osborn & Boggs Nursery.
Another person was guessing that Count Agoston Haraszthy brought Zinfandel from
Europe.
In
1990 I visited Croatia for the first time since 1954 and noticed again the
similarity of Plavac Mali and Zinfandel. I was convinced at that time that they
were the same grape. On my next trip to Croatia in August, 1993, 1 brought with
me clusters, leaves, and canes from Napa Valley Zinfandel and again compared
them to Plavac Mali. I could see only similarities! On that trip I obtained
book written by Dr. Peter Males describing different clones of Plavac Mali
entitled "Zinfandel, Primitivo, and Plavac Mali." In his opinion,
they were the same variety.
One
day in 1998 1 called Dr. Carol Meredith of the University of California, Davis
and asked her to come to my home in Yountville where I showed her the book by
Dr. Males and I translated it for her into English. She was very interested and
decided to go to Croatia and see for herself if she could solve the puzzle of
the origin of Zinfandel. In 1998 she went to Croatia and upon seeing a vineyard
of Plavac Mali said, "My goodness, lots of Zinfandel here!" For one
week she took samples of about 150 vines, mostly from the section Peninsula
Pe1jesac and the island Hvar. When she came back to Davis and analyzed the
samples none of them proved to be the real Zinfandel but rather relatives of
Zinfandel. The territory that Dr. Meredith did not cover was left to Professor
Peich and Professor Edi Maletich from the University of Zagreb to search for
the origin of Zinfandel. The miracle happened on September 7, 2000 near Split
in Kastel Novi when they discovered a very old vine that proved to be identical
to our Zinfandel in California. Of course, further studies are continuing to
find more vines and trace their history. Dr. Carol Meredith was kind and
analyzed the leaves of the Croatian Zinfandel by eight different tests and all
proved that it was the same as that found in California.
Mr.
Terry Robards wrote an article in the August, 1996 edition of Wine Enthusiast magazine recalling his visit to
Croatia explaining and elaborating on Plavic Mali and wines produced from Plavac
Mali.
The
conclusion of the debate is that the origin of California Zinfandel has been
found in Croatia.