{"id":27196,"date":"2016-05-24T14:43:59","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T18:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=27196"},"modified":"2016-06-30T10:06:47","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T14:06:47","slug":"zinfandel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/zinfandel\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheese + Wine: Zinfandel"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the current cheese-pairing climate, which favors whites and lighter reds, zinfandel gets short shrift. But it\u2019s time that changed. The grape\u2019s history is a bit blurry, but genetic research has revealed it to have Mediterranean roots, with ties to a Croatian grape called crljenak kastelanski<\/i>, as well as to southern Italy\u2019s primitivo<\/i>, where you can bet the locals enjoy it with cheese.<\/p>\n

The grape kept up those southern European ties for many years after it landed in the United States in the early 1800s, planted often by Italian immigrants, who made it in an Italianate style—high acidity, readily drinkable, the sort that goes down well with a chunk of Dry Jack cheese.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, after Prohibition, and then the blush debacle, in which zinfandel became equated with a soda-sweet pink wine, Americans forgot what real zinfandel tastes like. In the 1990s it was often closer to port in style than table wine, thick and black and nearing 16 percent alcohol.<\/p>\n

Today, as the second most-planted red wine grape in California, zinfandel comes in a rainbow of styles, from bone-dry rose\u0301s to frisky, lean reds to spicy, high-octane bruisers and port-style dessert wines. That means, of course, that there\u2019s a zinfandel for every cheese. Here are a few ideas to start.<\/p>\n

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Rose\u0301 Zinfandel<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

These days many producers are capitalizing on zinfandel\u2019s ability to make a brisk, spicy, bone-dry rose\u0301 that can take on herbed goat cheeses as well as any Provenc\u0327al bottle. At the same time white zinfandel remains one of the best-selling wines on the market, and if it\u2019s brunchtime and there\u2019s a crock of spicy, homemade pimiento cheese<\/a> on the table you, too, will see the attraction.<\/p>\n