It's the final entry in Jancis Robinson's monumental Vines, Grapes & Wines (Knopf, 1986), a volume I seem to refer to at least once a week: Zweigelt-rebe, meaning, well, Zweigelt vine, and referring to a relatively new grape variety that's big in Austria and making some interesting inroads in the Okanagan.

What's relatively new? It's been not quite 85 years since a Dr. Fritz Zweigelt, working at the Klosterneuburg research station, came up with a cross of two varieties: Blaufrí¤nkisch (also known as Lemberger) and St. Laurent. Whether the good doctor himself hung his name on the new grape, or whether one of his grad students did so, it stuck, being easier for a German speaker to navigate than one who knows only English.

In short order, it became Austria's most popular red-wine grape, due in no small part to its fairly early ripening and generous yield. If only it wasn't named Zweigelt; as the penultimate entry in Jancis Robinson's other monumental work, The Oxford Companion to Wine (Oxford University Press, 1999), it prompted one editorialist to conclude the brief write-up with this observation: "The export fortunes of the variety may, oddly enough, be hampered by its originator's uncompromisingly Germanic surname. If only he had been called Dr. Pinot Noir."

Still, Zweigelt it is, and once you take a run at it, it's not that tough: "ts-VIE-gellt". (The "g" is hard.) At least one Okanagan winery faced the pronunciation challenge head-on and simply put a big Zorro-esque Z on the label; people have come to calling it "that Z wine" (Z as we Canadians say it, to rhyme with bread, not tea).

We tasted the four I could readily find in VQA stores, and here's the news, in alphabetical order.

Arrowleaf Cellars Zweigelt 2002 ($15.95) The Zuppiger family's mid-valley winery sits between Kelowna and Vernon, on a fairly busy thoroughfare called Camp Road, and has recently been producing some excellent whites, both varietally and blended. Their take on this grape emphasizes its bright, fresh qualities: full of beautiful berry flavours, ripe and rich and forward, terrific balance. People who love good Beaujolais will come away happy from this. Listed now is the 2003 vintage ($15.95), which won a bronze medal at last fall's Okanagan Wine Festival. Based on our tasting of the '02, it should have had at least silver.

Hainle Vineyards/Deep Creek Wine Estate Zweigelt 2004 ($22.90) This one costs the most and tastes the best, in today's outing. Which is hardly any wonder, since Tilman Hainle has been making it longer than just about anybody in the Okanagan (even though he departed the operation last year), originally as Lemberger, later as Zweigelt. "Organic winemaking" continues to be the avowed enterprise here, even with the recent change in ownership and focus. This was the winery that emphasized the big red Z and let people identify it so.

Of this vintage, 915 cases have left the cellar, and the winemaker pegs it for a good six years' comfortable aging in the bottle. It begins with a big purple blast of colour, mellows into a somewhat restrained aroma, gradually opening up to big and earthy berry flavours; the fruit is beautifully fragrant and ripe; the finish is deep and long and pillowy, but with lots of good acid backbone. Maybe even more than six years! This wine has to be a benchmark for Zweigelt production in B.C., and if anyone wrote the book-or at least a couple of important chapters-it is Hainle. Try it with one of those flourless chocolate cakes and see what your taste buds say.

Mistral Estate Winery Zweigelt 2004 ($15.90) It checks in with a big 14 percent alcohol, which is significantly more than the other three (they're all in the 12 to 12.5 percent range), and we thought this put it a bit out of whack: the balance is short on fruit and the finish falls off pretty quick, with some bitterness. Still, there is fresh, tangy fruit in abundance, and the winery is very new and part of a three-winery operation that also includes Benchland and Spiller Estate. (The one winemaker doing it all must have his hands full.) We're keen to look at the next vintage, because the promise is definitely there.

Summerhill Pyramid Winery Blaufrí¤nkisch 2000 ($19.95) This is another curiosity from-their call-"Canada's most visited winery", and surely the Okanagan's most curious, starting with their mission statement: "Divine purpose in every blessed drop". Here is a wine made from only one of Zweigelt's parents, and it has been, over several previous vintages, a hit with many wine lovers. (Our bottle came from the enterprising and delightful Yaletown wine shop, Taylorwood Wines, and cost $19.95.)

If it's really already nearly six years old, it is holding its own very well: plummy and beefy aromas, still surprisingly tannic, good weight and mellow fruit with a tasty middleweight finish that ends up clean and bright on the palate. It carries a curious but not unpleasant edge, and-true to its origins-is a B.C. curiosity.

Permit me one kvetch, though: aren't we all just tired to the teeth of that red blob of wax or plastic that some wineries still stick on the top of the cork? Yeah, the one that flies into a thousand pieces all over the kitchen when you put the tip of the corkscrew in. Let's lose that, okay?

So, our order of preference today is Hainle, Arrowleaf, Summerhill, and Mistral. Stay tuned for more; it's an interesting grape, with some originality (and possibly excellent blending potential) that I'd like to see other winemakers-say, Senka Tennant or Jeff Martin, Howard Soon or Lawrence Herder-take a turn with.