Skip to content
California Wine Atlas

Zinfandel

Red wine grape · reported 2000–2025

Further reading: VIVC catalog entry

Zinfandel's origin is Balkan; it is the same variety as Croatia's Crljenak Kastelanski and Italy's Primitivo. California's bearing acreage has fallen by nearly a third since 2000, from 47,154 to 33,874 acres in 2025, though it remains planted in 46 counties. San Joaquin County alone holds 38 percent of the statewide total, reflecting its long history as a high-volume Central Valley grape as well as a coastal old-vine variety. It ripens unevenly and produces both robust, jammy dry reds and pink, off-dry White Zinfandel.

What kind of grape this is

Registry name
PRIMITIVO

CDFA prints it as Zinfandel

Species
VITIS VINIFERA LINNÉ SUBSP. SATIVA (DE CANDOLLE) HEGI
Berry color
NOIR
Country of origin
BALKAN
Synonyms
64

names this grape is known by elsewhere, per VIVC

Approved on a US label
Zinfandel

the names TTB permits on a bottle

FPS selections
39

distinct clones and selections held at UC Davis

Registries

What is published

Counts describe what this atlas holds for Zinfandel, not what California grows. A zero is a published answer: it means the source names the grape and reports nothing under it, or does not name it at all.

1,139

county-years of acreage

46 counties, 33,874 bearing acres in 2025

442

district-years of crush

17 of 17 crush districts, 26 crop years

442

district-years of Brix

tonnage-weighted at the crusher, Crush Report Table 3

77

producers in this atlas

producers whose curated wine list names it — a curated roster of 2,772 producers, not a census of California

—

regions with a maturity date

not one of the eight cultivars with a

Acreage in California

loading acreage…

Counties and concentration

loading concentration…

Where it is planted

Reported by county — never by AVA

loading plantings…

Share of each county's vineyard

Reported by county — never by AVA

loading county shares…

The counties

Reported by county — never by AVA

loading counties…

Tonnage and price by district

Reported by crush district — never by county or AVA

All 17 districts on one axis →

loading crush report…

Brix at the crusher

Reported by crush district — never by county or AVA

loading must chemistry…

Growers in this atlas's roster

and 65 more in the roster.

77 of this atlas’s 2772 curated producers, 39 of them with a named wine in the atlas made from it. A roster is not a census — this is who the atlas has entered, not who grows the grape in California.

Measured chemistry, from one producer's own sheets

9 wines from 1 producer, each read from that producer’s own tech sheet and linked to it. No average is shown, and none should be computed from these. Wineries that publish tech sheets are selected by their own marketing departments, so a mean across them describes publishing habits rather than a grape.