Zin, short for Zinfandel, is an essentially American red wine grape.

For much of the 20th century, Count Agoston Haraszthy - a notable and colourful figure in Northern California during Gold Rush days and indisputably a key figure in the development of the Napa Valley wine country - was credited with introducing this exotic grape variety to California from his native Hungary some time after 1849.

However, very little research was needed to show Zinfandel (or, sometimes, ‘Zinfindal’ or even ‘Zeinfindall’) was widely planted as a table grape in the American East Coast decades before Haraszthy set foot in Napa.

Only thanks to DNA ‘fingerprinting’ of vines in the early 90’s, it was proven that the look-alike Primitivo, a traditional grape variety from Apulia in Southern Italy, is almost identical to Zinfandel.

Strangely enough, Zinfandel was known in the U.S. before Primitivo grew in Italy. Did Zin travel back to the old country, or do both grapes simply share a common ancestor?

Scientists thought a wine grape of Dalmatia in Croatia called ‘Plavac Mali’ to be Zin's parent.

Once more though, the mystery deepens, as DNA testing indicates that Plavac Mali is a cousin, not a forefather.

In any case, California’s most planted and versatile black grape continues to deliver everything from dark, jammy, leathery reds in California to pale pink ‘blush’ wines, and even a little fortified wine that bears comparison with port. It's also grown in Australia and South Africa.

The red Zins are often serious oak-aged, long-lived taut, spicy, dense, lively and full-bodied wines, regarded as California’s answer to claret, especially high profiled when the berry flavours come from pockets of old vines.

White Zinfandel is neither really white nor crucially Zinfandel, but scented and sweetened-up with a dash of a more aromatic Muscat or Riesling, this wishy-washy rosé can be very pleasant indeed.

Judged by the lore of the label, a salmon-pink non-vintage bottle of Estate Cellars White Zinfandel (10,5% vol.) by Inglenook Vineyards, (which belongs to Francis Ford-Coppola by the way) seemed a good buy.

Unfortunately this week’s choice proved not so dazzling after all: somewhat fishy on the nose and rather flat on the palate while one would expect cheerful and refreshing tinges of summer fruit and spritz. A sin really - at Lm3.75, no?