http://www.anotherwineblog.com/archives/66

Zinfandel has a somewhat funny history. It’s always been thought that that the grape comes from southern Italy as well as the Primitivo grape. However is 2001 after many years of research using DNA profiling, it was found that the grape is identical to Crljenak which is a grape from Croatia. It’s even thought that with some more research the first plants may have originated from either Greece or Albania.
Of course, Zinfandel grapes are very much associated with the West Coast of the USA and ended up there in the mid-19th century at the same time as the Gold Rush. Despite Prohibition in America, Zinfandel continued production by being named sacramental wine.
Zinfandel is a very popular wine and as a result is widely grown, it’s full of flavour and character plus it’s also very reasonably priced so you can afford to drink it everyday. However for some reason it’s not so popular with wine snobs who prefer other wines like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Oh well, their loss is our gain!