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That Useful Wine Site

  Wine explained, clearly and helpfully, including critic-recommended specimens of each variety.

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Welcome to That Useful Wine Site!

You have apparently come to this page from a link on a search engine or another site. If this is your first visit here, I much recommend that you take a few minutes to look over the introductory material accessible via the blue “Introductory” zone of the Site Menu available from the “hamburger” icon in the upper right of this (and every) page. An understanding of the purposes and principles of organization of this site will, I hope and believe, much augment your experience here, for this page and in general. You can simply click this link to get at the site front page, which, unsurprisingly, is the best place to start. Thank you for visiting.

The Zierfandler Grape


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About Zierfandler

(Synonyms: Cilifai, Cilifan, Cirfandli, Cirifai, Cirifai Piros, Cirifan, Gumpoldskirchener, Gumpoldskirchener Spätrot, Gumpoldskirchener Spätroth, Kesoei Piros, Kirmizi Zierfahndler, Nemes Cirfandli, Piros Cirfandli, Piroscirfandli, Raifler, Reifler Rot, Roter Raifler, Roter Reifler, Roter Zierfandler, Roth Hensch, Rother Raifler, Rother Zierfahndler, Rothhinschen, Rothreifler, Rotreifler, Rubiner, Spätrot, Zerjavina, and Zierfandler Rot.)

Background

Map showing the Thermenregion of Austria.

Zierfandler is a white-wine grape originating in Austria’s Thermenregion, just south of Vienna, and that region remains the source of virtually all Zierfandler. The grape is believed to be a naturally occurring cross; it is not recent, but neither is it antique.

Made as a table-wine monovarietal, Zierfandler produces big, strongly flavored wines with “exotic” aromas; they are characterized by high acid levels, which implies good aging potential. (It also implies that they can be made into good-quality dessert wines, and indeed they are.) The table wines made with Zierfandler may be monovarietal, but it is also common to find them blended with Rotgipfler

Factoid: Zierfandler may have been the source for the name used in the U.S. for what was recently found to be the Italian variety Primitivo, that name being Zinfandel; as the grapes (and their wines) are very different, the suspect is some mis-labelled vines shipped from Austria around 1820. (That presumes “Zinfandel” to be a corruption of tzinifándli—or czirifandli—a Hungarian name for Zierfandler.)

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Some Descriptions of Zierfandler Wines

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Some Zierfandler Bottlings to Try

(About this list.)

Regrettably, there are no Zierfandler bottlings that meet our quality/price/availability criteria. Sorry.

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This page was last modified on Sunday, 8 December 2024, at 9:46 pm Pacific Time.