Anders Tørneskog wrote:

>>Petite Syrah is a big wine as many California Zins. I think they have
>>traced the DNA to a grape called Durif, Hungarian in origin if memory
>>serves - I'm sure to be corrected here if that is not the place.
>
> Correction!!!!!!!!!
> Found the following: The Durif grape was developed by Dr. Durif, a French
> nurseryman living in the south of France in the late 1800's. He created this
> new variety by crossing the Syrah grape with the Peloursin variety.

Correct, Anders. What is planted in CA as Petite Sirah/Syrah has been
found to be variously Durif, Peloursin and occasionally clones of the
true Syrah. Most of the plantings are Durif, but because of the age of
many of these vinyards, often they are found as "field blends," planted
with Zinfandel, Alicante Bouchet, etc.

Mark Lipton