Are primitivo and zinfandel the same grape?

Primitivo and zinfandel are the same wine grape variety, with the same genetic fingerprint.

Geneticists at the University of California, Davis established in 1994 that the Italian primitivo and the Californian zinfandel could not be told apart. In December 2001 researchers from the University of Zagreb, together with Carole Meredith of UC Davis, found old vines in Dalmatia that gave the same profile. By 2003 the match was settled for all three names.

If you choose between a primitivo and a zinfandel at the counter, you are choosing between two countries and two traditions, not between two grapes.

The origin lies on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, where the variety is called tribidrag or crljenak kastelanski.

Tribidrag is the oldest known name and, according to the plant service of UC Davis, goes back to the fifteenth century. The name comes from Greek and refers to early ripening. The Italian primitivo does the same: it comes from the Latin primus, because the grape ripens early in the season.

Until 2001 it was assumed that the grape came from Italy. The Croatian trail answered a question that had been speculated about for more than a hundred years.

The name follows the country: Italian wine from this grape is called primitivo, American wine is called zinfandel.

Every wine country works with its own list of permitted variety names. In Puglia primitivo is the registered name, in California it is zinfandel. Both names stand for the same plant, but belong to a different region and a different set of rules.

Primitivo only reached California late. According to Foundation Plant Services, researcher Austin Goheen brought plant material of the Italian primitivo to UC Davis in 1968, while zinfandel had long been grown there by then.

Primitivo di Manduria is a protected Italian origin in Puglia with its own production regulation.

The regulations of the consorzio prescribe that the wine consists of at least 85 percent primitivo; the rest may come from other permitted black varieties that are not aromatic. The total alcohol content must reach at least 13.5 percent by volume, and for the riserva that limit is 14 percent.

A riserva must also mature for 24 months, counted from 1 November of the harvest year, of which at least nine months in wood.

In the European Union a wine must be made for at least 85 percent from the named grape variety if a variety appears on the label.

If two or more varieties are listed, the wine must consist 100 percent of those varieties. The names then appear on the label in descending order of the quantity used, in letters of equal size. The rule is in Article 50 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33.

That gives you something to go on: if primitivo is the only variety on the bottle, then it is mainly primitivo inside.