On Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:01:16 GMT, "James Silverton"
> wrote:

>Would you please expand on "totally different clonally" ? It has
>no obvious meaning to me.

I mean that the clones of Zin in California may be similar to each
other, but not closely related to the clones of Pimitivo in Italy.

Zin and Primitivo have a common ancestor, but clonal selection in
California and Italy could have effectively produced two very
different grapes for practical purposes. In the same way that Pinot
Blanc and Pinot Gris are practically different for example, despite
the fact that they technically belong to the same variety.

It's pure speculation that the clones are very different, but I bet
they are not the same clones both sides of the Atlantic. As far as I
know no one has done the research.

But it could be that the differences between California Zin and
Italian Primitivo might not be totally down to terroir.

--
Steve Slatcher
http://pobox.com/~steve.slatcher