Turning leaf (wine?)

[Undertoad]

I'm the boss of no man or woman. I merely keep the place running. You needn't be nice to me. I will accept any number of return head-butts with no threat of carding. All I ask is that, if you find the place becomes important to you, make a donation to it.

I say Zinfandel because it is one of the truly American grapes. I leave out the inferior American varietals and crosses such as Catawba, Niagara, Concord, Cayuga White. There are some fine examples of wines made from these grapes, but also some of the worst wine I've ever tasted. It's interesting that grapes lived natively in North America before Europeans arrived. None of those "pure" grape lines make much good wine, but their rootstock proved valuable, because they are hardy and resistant to phylloxera. Americans will be familiar with Concord, because here it is "the grape jelly grape", high in sugar content and will grow in cold climates.

Zinfandel is considered natively American, and nobody knows exactly where it came from, but it is likely to be a hybrid based on either an Italian or a Croatian grape. Its wine tends to be big, and generally more spicy/peppery. Ridge has the best reputation amongst those wineries that make a Zinfandel.