White Zinfandel had a long run in the United States as one of the most widely consumed wines. But that popularity has led to some confusion over what it, and the Zinfandel varietal, really are.
This video takes a quick look at what this popular wine is and how it came to be.
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What is White Zinfandel? Is it different than Red Zinfandel?
What is White Zinfandel? It is, or was, one of the most popular wines sold in the US for quite some time. It was started by Sutter Home back in the 1970's. Zinfandel is actually a red grape, some people aren't even aware of that. I guess the question really should be “What is Red Zinfandel?” It starts as a red grape it is really a hardy, rich red grape.
White Zinfandel comes from those red grapes. But what they do is they skim off some of the wine after only a short contact with the skins of the grapes. Exactly like you would make a rosé, which we talked about in a previous video. One of the major differences with White Zinfandel and Rosés in general is that White Zinfandel tends to be on the sweeter side. So the story goes that back in the 1970's when Sutter Home was trying to make a very rich, very dry, deep red Zinfandel, they had the idea to take some of the juice off of the skins early on in the process. That way the rest of the juice would have more contact with the skins and hopefully produce a deeper, darker, richer, drier Red Zinfandel.
When they took some of that juice off, they decided to bottle it as White Zinfandel. The accident they stumbled across during the process is that the fermentation didn't fully go through in the White Zinfandel and that juice that they were selling was White Zinfandel and it left a little bit sweeter that it should have been.
The yeast usually burns off the sugars to make alcohol. But in this case it didn't go all the way through so it still was a little bit sweet. People started liking it and Sutter Home started making more. Other companies jumped in as well and started producing their own and so a good segment of the wine drinking society of that time and up until recently wasn't even aware that Red Zinfandel was actually very dark very rich, dry red wine.
One of the other effects that White Zinfandel has had on the American wine consumers is to change their impressions of what pink wines are traditionally. French wineries and even a lot of California wineries for decades or even hundreds of years have been producing Rosés, which are the dry pink wines.
Because of the popularity of the White Zinfandel in the US, as more and more people became wine drinkers, that was the only pink wine they were familiar with. They started associating pink wines with sweetness.
So in conclusion of what is a White Zinfandel, basically it is a sweet version of the Rosé, made out of the Zinfandel grapes. It is just important to remember that when you walk in to your local wine store and you ask for a Zinfandel, don't be surprised if the employee walks you over and shows you a dry red wine. If you want the White Zinfandel, make sure to specify the word "white" in front of it.
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