History Of A Grape And Its Wine example essay topic

For many years, wine dictionaries and encyclopedias have unknowingly been misleading consumers on the history of "America's wine", Zinfandel. In Zinfandel, A History of a Grape and Its Wine, Charles Sullivan, an accomplished viticulture researcher, challenges the popular belief that the grape was originally brought to America by a Hungarian immigrant. Sullivan explores the history of wine to bring forth intriguing facts that prove the popular belief to be wrong. With the help of University of California's (UC's) Carole Meredith, a new idea is thoroughly explained describing the true ancestry of Zinfandel.

For those not familiar with the wine it is important to note that Zinfandel, according to Sullivan, was the first and most successful American wine. Typically, wines from France and Italy prove to be more superior in taste than the American counterparts. However, with Zinfandel this is not the case. Unlike aged and dry wines, the young, fruity flavor of the Zinfandel makes for a more enjoyable flavor that appeals to a greater number of people's tastes. Sullivan does an excellent job keeping the book enjoyable by providing readers with intriguing side notes.

For example, here he tries to illustrate the extreme passion that the Californians had for Zinfandel". So great was the Napa passion for this grape that one of the tiny railroad stations below St. Helena was renamed "Zinfandel". By the 1880's Zinfandel Lane crossed the valley, and the steamer Zinfandel plied the bay waters between San Francisco and the wharves of Napa City". (Sullivan, 2003) This passage is a perfect example of why this book was enjoyable for me.

However, there are times during the book where Sullivan becomes longwinded when it comes to explaining certain points. Long paragraphs embedded with, at times, insignificant graphics and charts make the book a hard and slow read. Yet, my curiosity and desire to learn helped me overcome the craving to close the book. The desire I did have to close the book may have been attributed to the amount of "wine lingo" found within the text.

The excessive amount of references to other wine varieties made it extremely tiresome, as I had to repeatedly look up in dictionaries and encyclopedias the characteristics of a certain wine he was describing. I believe that a person more educated in the subject of wine would enjoy this book more than an uneducated person like me. If a reader is not familiar with wine, the book can be quite discouraging at times. There are many sections of the book, though, where one does not need to know a large amount about wine.

A large portion of the book is committed to proving the "Haraszthy myth" wrong. This myth as I mentioned in the introduction is an explanation of the history of the Zinfandel grape. Originally most wine researchers thought that Count Agoston Haraszthy brought the grape over from Hungary when he immigrated to America in the early nineteenth century. Yet, this assumption was never proven to be true.

It was merely based on the remarks of, at the time, a hurt and broken son. Agoston's death fell hard upon his son Arpad. After the death, Arpad was interviewed by journalists about his father's contribution to the California wine industry. This was when Arpad incorrectly informed the journalists about his father's supposed transportation of the Zinfandel grape. Though Arpad did not necessarily deceive the journalists on purpose, he did not understand the long-term effect that his remarks would have. Up until shortly before this book was published, the Haraszthy myth was accepted and published in wine publications across the globe.

It is obvious now to see the effect that this book has on the global wine industry. So, where did the grape actually come from? Who is responsible for finding and transporting "America's wine?" To answer these questions Sullivan collaborated with Professor Carol Meredith from UC. Through extensive DNA testing she found that the grape actually came from Croatia. However, Sullivan believes that Frederick Macondray imported this Croatian grape around 1852 (Furor, 2004). The one mystery that still remains is the connection between the Croatian grape and Macondray.

Although the history of the Zinfandel grape may be mysterious, it is certain that when it was introduced to Americans, Zinfandel, or whatever it was called at the time, was a success. In fact, the name Zinfandel was first coined in America during the 1800's. California wineries over time have successfully made the name Zinfandel into an effective marketing tool. In response, Italians have switched the label of Primitive (a red grape variety) to Zinfandel not to set the record straight, but rather to take credit for California's successful varieties. Taking advantage of the amount of respect that consumers have for the Italians ability to produce an excellent product, the Italians have been successful at fooling the consumer. This not only is a disservice to all of California's wine producers, but it also confuses the viticulture novice on what a Zinfandel really is.

Because of the Italians deceitful marketing, it is important, when selecting a Zinfandel that you are positive it comes from California. According to Chris Grimm, a nationally published wine columnist, great Californian Zinfandels come from the "R vineyards" - like Ravenswood, Rosenblum and Redwood (Grimm, 2004). The owners of these wineries take special care in assuring that their product is an authentic Zinfandel. Relating this book to my life, as difficult as it may seem, is actually fairly easy.

I am not of legal drinking age yet, but when I do reach the age where I can enjoy the "nectar of the gods", I will be more knowledgeable in selecting a good choice. The research and studying I did to thoroughly understand the book has educated me in a topic of which I did not think I would have interest. In fact, I have become so interested that I have actually purchased The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil in order to fulfill my curiosities. Overall, I think that choosing this book to read and review was a good idea. I was able to learn about a subject that I was not familiar with and also pick up some history while I was at it.

I strongly recommend that if you have any interest in learning about Zinfandel or any other wines you should check out both Sullivan's and MacNeil's book. It is worth it if you want to be able to enjoy some of the better aspects of life.

Bibliography

Furer, D. Bookshelf: History of Zinfandel Explored in New Book. Wine Business Monthly. 2004;
Volume XI, Issue 4. Grimm, C. Wine Talk: Zin for the Fourth. Wine Arts & Leisure. web 2004.
Sullivan, C. Zinfandel: A History of a Grape and Its Wine. UC Press; Berkley, CA. 2003.