Someone explain Zinfandel to me. I understand it's a tough grape to grow because it ripen unevenly but compared to other varietals, is the idea to grow it into small clusters with small berries? I recently picked Zin at a residential vineyard up in Sonoma and the berries and bunches were HUGE!

Compared to other vineyard I've picked at, this place was hostile to say the least. There were power lines above which buzzed electricity for all to hear. The wasps. OH MY GOD, the wasps were out gorging even at seven in the morning! The morning was cold and damp no less. But the crop was hit and miss. I definitely "cherry-picked" my way through the vineyard looking for the cleanest, undamaged clusters for myself. I scoured majority of the vineyard to find enough crop but I was blown away with how big the berries were. They almost looked like table grapes!

Here's some pics









So far, the fermentation is going great. The Brix were 24 and PH 3.3 (still need to check acids). I bled off 10 gallons of juice from 400 pounds of fruit which I'll make a blush from but more importantly to concentrate flavors with increased skins to juice ratio.

Can anyone comment on growing Zinfandel? Am I being too sensitive to berry size or is this true to the varietal?