Plavac Mali, a cross between ancestral Zinfandel

Zinfandel

Zinfandel is a variety of red grape planted in over 10 percent of California vineyards. DNA fingerprinting revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grape Crljenak Kaštelanski, and also the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in Puglia , where it was introduced in the 18th century...

 (known locally in Croatian as Crljenak Kaštelanski) and Dobričić

Dobricic

Dobričić is an ancient red wine grape variety from the island of Šolta off the Dalmatian coast in Croatia. It is one parent of the Plavac Mali red wine grape variety; the other one is Zinfandel, a grape variety also known as Crljenak Kaštelanski in Croatia, from where it originates....

 grapes, is the primary red wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

 grape

Grape

A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...

 grown along the Dalmatian

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

 coast of Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

. The name refers to the small blue grapes that the vines produce: in Croatian

Croatian language

Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

 plavo means blue; mali means small.

Plavac Mali is known for producing rich, flavorful wines that are high in both alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

 (typically 12% but up to 17%) and grape tannins. Common flavors and aromas include blackberries, dark cherries, pepper, and spices. Croatian wines from this grape include the reds from Dingač and Postup

Postup

Postup is wine growing region on Croatia's Pelješac peninsula just to the east of Orebić. It takes its name from the small village that sits at the center of it....

 (both growing regions on the Pelješac peninsula

Pelješac

Pelješac is a peninsula in southern Dalmatia in Croatia. The peninsula is part of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and is the second largest peninsula in Croatia...

), Ivan Dolac and Sveta Nedilja (Hvar island), Bolski plavac (Brač island) and the rosé Opol (a vinification style).

History

In the 1980s, Plavac Mali was incorrectly thought to be an ancestor of Zinfandel. In 1998, while researching the origins of Zinfandel through DNA fingerprinting, Dr. Carole Meredith

Carole Meredith

Carole P. Meredith is an American grape geneticist who was a professor at the Department of Viticulture and Enology of University of California, Davis before she retired in 2003...

 at UC Davis with the urging from Mike Grgich

Mike Grgich

Mike Grgich is a Croatian American winemaker in California. He was born into a winemaking family in the town of Desne on Croatia's coastal region of Dalmatia...

 (a well-known winemaker in Napa Valley originally from Croatia) and researchers from the University of Zagreb

University of Zagreb

The University of Zagreb is the biggest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe...

 discovered that Zinfandel is actually one parent of Plavac Mali. The other parent is an ancient variety known as Dobričić from the island of Šolta

Šolta

Šolta is an island in Croatia. It is situated in the Adriatic Sea in the central Dalmatian archipelago, west of the island of Brač, south of Split and east of the Drvenik islands . Its area is 58.98 km2 and it has a population of 1,675 .The highest peak of Šolta is the summit Vela Straža...

which, much like Crljenak Kaštelanski is not commonly found on its own.

External Links

• "Explaining Plavac Mali", Vinologue: The Crush, January 14, 2011