  The zCOSMOS SINFONI project is aimed at studying the physical and kinematical
properties of a sample of massive z~1.4-2.5 star-forming galaxies, through
SINFONI near-IR integral field spectroscopy (IFS), combined with the
multi-wavelength information from the zCOSMOS (COSMOS) survey. The project is
based on 1 hour of natural-seeing observations per target, and Adaptive Optics
(AO) follow-up for a major part of the sample, which includes 30 galaxies
selected from the zCOSMOS/VIMOS spectroscopic survey. This first paper presents
the sample selection, and the global physical characterization of the target
galaxies from multicolor photometry, i.e., star formation rate (SFR), stellar
mass, age, etc. The Halpha integrated properties such as, flux, velocity
dispersion, and size, are derived from the natural-seeing observations, while
the follow up AO observations will be presented in the next paper of this
series. Our sample appears to be well representative of star-forming galaxies
at z~2, covering a wide range in mass and SFR. The Halpha integrated properties
of the 25 Halpha detected galaxies are similar to those of other IFS samples at
the same redshifts. Good agreement is found among the SFRs derived from Halpha
luminosity and other diagnostic methods, provided the extinction affecting the
Halpha luminosity is about twice that affecting the continuum. A preliminary
kinematic analysis, based on the maximum observed velocity difference across
the source, and on the integrated velocity dispersion, indicates that the
sample splits nearly 50-50 into rotation-dominated and velocity
dispersion-dominated galaxies, in good agreement with previous surveys.
