A recent crossing of Palomino (see here) and Chardonnay (see here) which, in mixing the neutrality of the former with the flavour of the latter, manages to produce a lightweight, neutral imitation of Chardonnay. It is grown in the south of France, where the local name for Palomino is Listán.
Switzerland’s favourite grape variety reaches peaks of quality there that it attains nowhere else, although it is widely planted throughout the world, from Chile to Ukraine and goes under an awful lot of other names. We’ll cover the main ones. As befits what seems to be a very old vine, it comes in many variations. It appears to have originated around Lake Geneva, and have taken the name of Chasselas from the Mâconnais village of the same name in southern Burgundy, where it was first grown in France.
In Switzerland its main interest for the drinker is its ability to reflect its terroir: on granite soil it tastes flowery with fair acidity, on chalk it is fruity and honeyed, on the deeper, more clay soils of Epesses it has more weight and character, and in Dézaley, also in the Vaud, it is minerally. But ‘weight’ is always a relative term with Chasselas: it is, at best, a lightweight, neutral wine, even though it has more acidity in Switzerland than elsewhere.
It is grown in Germany as Gutedel (see here) or Krachgutedel or Weisser Krachgutedel. In Croatia some people call it Queen Victoria. Don’t even begin to ask. In Austria, where there is relatively little planted, it’s called Junker or Moster or Gutedel. You can see that Chasselas follows the rule that the more neutral the grape variety is, the more vainglorious titles it acquires.
In France it is being replaced both in Alsace and in Pouilly-sur-Loire, where it was widely planted before phylloxera and produced table grapes for the markets of Paris. But the coming of the railways meant that the Midi could get its earlier ripening grapes to Paris faster, and Pouilly lost its market. It began then to make wine from its Chasselas, and the appellation of Pouilly-Fumé was so called to distinguish the superior Sauvignon Blanc wine from the Chasselas-based Pouilly-sur-Loire. The best French Chasselas comes from Crépy, in Savoie, where the wines are like the Swiss versions, only even lighter – if that’s possible.
Not all its worldwide plantings go into the wine vat: it is much grown as a table grape. Most of its Romanian crop, for example, is destined for the table. Hungary, Moldova, Ukraine, north and south Italy and North Africa all have some Chasselas, as does Chile. But the grape known in California as Golden Chasselas is most likely to be Palomino (see here). Best producers: (France) Serge Dagueneau, Kientzler, Pfaffenheim co-op, de Ripaille, Guy Saget, Schoffit; (Switzerland) H Badoux, L Bovard, Dubois, E & L Fonjallaz, R Gilliard, Caves Imesch, J & P Testuz.
Sunset over snow-covered vineyards and Lac Léman at La Tour-de-Marsens, Lavaux in the Swiss canton of Vaud. Sometimes called Dorin in the Vaud, Chasselas produces 99 per cent of the canton’s white wine and suffers from a certain folie de grandeur; elsewhere in Switzerland it may be called Fendant.
See here.
The name for Nebbiolo in the Valtellina region of Lombardy, northern Italy. See here.
A red crossing of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sumoli produced in Australia but really only being championed by Brown Brothers in their warmer vineyards because it’s a slow ripener and clings to its tough tannins even when fully ripe. Yalumba tried it in cooler Wrattonbully – it didn’t work. But it does have lavish black fruit flavours, and Brown Brothers have had some success turning it into a fruity, low alcohol, sweet, fizzy red.
The ‘little cherry’ grape has a flavour, not surprisingly, of cherries and spice, and its lowish acidity makes it a good blending partner for Sangiovese (of which it seems to be either a parent or offspring) in Chianti. It is sometimes bottled as a varietal, in keeping with the current passion for rediscovering little-known varieties, and it can be found as far south as Sicily and as far north as the Val d’Aosta. Best producers: Antonio Camillo, Rascioni & Cecconello, Sassotondo.
This vine’s reputation for high quantity and poor to middling quality is only partly deserved. It can certainly give high yields, but at low yields it can produce characterful, lush, sweetly rich wines which play a part in such star names as Lebanon’s Chateau Musar. Here yields are as low as 25hl/ha.
France’s Languedoc, too, can produce Cinsaut with finesse, providing that yields are kept down and the wine is given a long maceration with the skins. It is aromatic in youth, with soft, supple fruit, though with a nip of tannin, and is often used to calm down the tougher Carignan. But if allowed to yield heavily its quality falls rapidly. It is classed as a cépage améliorateur or improving variety, but lacks the prestige of other grapes used similarly such as Syrah or Mourvèdre. On its own, it can make attractive rosé. In France it is often spelt as Cinsault. It buds relatively late and is susceptible to mildew and oidium, though in Algeria it has proved more resistant than Aramon to drought and drying winds like the Sirocco. It has long been a popular grape in North Africa, and is Corsica’s main variety. In Spain, the old variety Samsó is none other than Cinsault. Saying it aloud gives the clue . . .
In South Africa its popularity has been eclipsed by its offspring, Pinotage (see here), the result of crossing Cinsaut (known locally as Hermitage) with Pinot Noir (see here), but there’s been a revival of interest since it has been realized that the astonishing longevity of old Cape Cabernet Sauvignon is due to a healthy dollop of Cinsaut in the blend. Now people are seeking out ancient plots of Cinsaut and making delicious reds full of raspberry coulis fruit. As a table grape, it can be found in France under the name of Oeillade: the berries are apparently judged too small to be of interest to export markets. Best producers: (France) l’Amarine, Caraguilhes, Clos Centeilles, Le Clos du Serres, Mas de Daumas Gassac, Mas Jullien, Pech-Redon, Val d’Orbieu, Vignerons Catalans; (Chile) De Martino; (USA) Morrison Lane.
Once the great standby of southern French white blends, Clairette seems to have had its day. It doesn’t fit the modern idiom: it is too unstructured, too quick to oxidize, too high in alcohol and too low in acidity.
It still plays a part, albeit a shrinking one, in many wines. On its own it makes Clairette de Bellegarde and Clairette du Languedoc, the second of which can be dry, sweet or rancio. It appears with Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains in the Clairette de Die appellation, and pops up in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes du Rhône, Côtes de Provence, Cassis, Bellet, Palette and many other southern appellations, often along with higher-alcohol grapes like Ugni Blanc. In the right terroir and at yields below 50hl/ha it can make interesting wine: fat and perhaps a little heavy, and with 14 per cent alcohol, but with a certain musky attraction. Modern winemaking, too, can hold back its tendency to oxidize. But at high yields of 100hl/ha or more it is the sort of wine that gave the Midi a poor reputation.
In South Africa it is regarded as a low-alcohol variety because it can achieve full ripeness at as little alcohol as 12% and though usually blended is now appearing successfully on its own from a few old plantations. In Australia’s Hunter Valley it used to be called Blanquette, and should not be confused with the Blanquette variety found in the Languedoc region of Limoux, which is Mauzac. Clairette is also a synonym of several other grapes in the south of France, including Ugni Blanc (known as Clairette Ronde in the Languedoc) and Bourboulenc. There is also a Clairette Gris, which has a pink tinge to its skins. Best producers: (France) Achard-Vincent, Clairette de Die co-op, D Cornillon, Faure, J-C Raspail.
Chateau Musar
This blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsaut and Syrah is not only Lebanon’s most famous wine, but a world- class classic.
Clevner (or Klevner) is the Alsace name for members of the Pinot family, usually Pinot Blanc. In Switzerland’s Zurich region Klevner is the local name for Pinot Noir (see here).
A southern Italian white grape, recently rediscovered as a varietal. The wine has good acidity and a herbal streak.
The white fox-tail grape comes from Campania in southern Italy and used to be found only in blends, but it’s an old grape and can produce high quality wines, mineral- and apricot-tinged. Best producers: D’Antiche Terre, Crogliano, Vini Antico Palazzo.
The French variety Colombard seems to have been the result of a crossing of Gouais Blanc and Chenin Blanc, and to have originated in the Charente region north of Bordeaux, where it was long made into white wine, and later distilled into Cognac. Many of the grapes are now wanted for still wine – to which Colombard is in fact much better suited than brandy, since it is higher in alcohol and lower in acidity than the usual brandy grape, Ugni Blanc.
Colombard is particularly effective in contributing peach and nectarine fruit and citrus lemon perfume to Vin de Pays des Côtes de Gascogne (from the Armagnac region) and, to a lesser extent, Vin de Pays Charentais (from Cognac). It is also planted in other parts of southwest France, and pops up in many white blends – in lesser Bordeaux regions such as Blaye, Colombard actively improves the perfume and acidity of whites.
Colombard is a useful, warm-climate grape, too, but few producers have maximized its potential. Even so, it’s on the rise in South Africa. It maintains its acidity well and gives good crops of fresh, grapefruit and peach-flavoured whites for early drinking. Several good examples have also appeared in Australia.
California’s Colombard, known as French Colombard, used to be prized for its good acidity in hot conditions, but it is in decline there. Until 1991 it was the state’s most widely planted white vine. Most but not all plantings are in the Central Valley. Yields are very high – up to 12 tons per acre (210hl/ha) – and the wine is usually blended into everyday jug wines. Best producers: (France) Jean Aubineau, Brumont/Montus, Joy, Meste-Duran, Producteurs Plaimont, Tariquet; (South Africa) Graham Beck, Bon Courage, Botha, Longridge, Robertson Winery, Swartland Wine Cellar; (Australia) Primo Estate.
Switzerland has a number of grapes which are very rare but extraordinarily good, and this is one of them. It makes a weighty, structured white wine with lovely honeyed flavours and appley, quince fruit, concentrated and quite high in alcohol. Best producers: Completer-Kellerei, Donatsch, Peter & Rosi Hermann, Schloss Reichenau, Hermann Schwarzenbach, Thomas Studach.
A red-fleshed grape found on the Portuguese island of Madeira, where it was planted in the 1960s. Used for table wine and fortified, it gives wine that is lighter in colour than the more widely planted Tinta Negra Mole, and less astringent, but it is very susceptible to rot.
Chenin Blanc: from Grape to Glass
Geography and History here; Viticulture and Vinification here; Chenin Blanc around the World here; Enjoying Chenin Blanc here
Floating on air and water, the château of Chenonceau stretches across the river Cher in Touraine, with the river Loire beyond. Chenin Blanc was first planted here in the heart of the Loire Valley in the 15th century and Anjou and Touraine are still where it produces its most exciting wines, whether sweet or dry, sparkling or still.
Well, at least the Chenin Blanc is versatile. It can make just about any style you could dream of. In the Loire Valley in France, its wines go from scaringly dry, to dry, to fairly dry to vaguely off-dry, to off-sweet, sweet, very, very sweet – and there’s good Chenin fizz too. In South Africa, Chenin wines go from mild and innocuous to snappy, dry and fruity, to full-bodied, to dense, rich, nutty, oaked styles with a wild flash in their eyes, to seriously sweet. Oh, and Chenin makes an awful lot of brandy there, too.
So. Versatility like that should make Chenin a pretty popular grape. But it doesn’t. If we remove the Loire Valley and South Africa, we’ve removed all the memorable examples of Chenin except one doughty example from New Zealand. Shouldn’t it be more popular? Well, only up to a point. Lots of other countries have tried to make exciting Chenin – California and Argentina still have well over 2000 ha (4500 acres) each, yet they just can’t coax any character out of it. In most places, it’s regarded as a high yielding variety, with useful acidity in warm conditions, and spends most of its time getting lost in blends of more expensive varieties like Chardonnay. And as Chardonnay loses its allure, Chenin’s usefulness fades. All round the world, it’s being ripped out, except in the centre of the Loire Valley and in South Africa. Because in each of these places, Chenin can produce thrilling wines, and there’s a new generation of young growers and winemakers determined to trumpet its talents.
A new generation. Crucial. A new generation who don’t have to shoulder their parents’ baggage of mediocrity. A new generation not wealthy, merely with the passion to excel. They couldn’t afford to plant new vineyards or bid up the price of the sexy varieties. They had to use what was there. And in the Loire Valley and South Africa it was Chenin. Yet these two areas took very different routes to success.
The Loire Valley had Sauternes in Bordeaux to thank. During the 1980s Sauternes had a series of splendid vintages for rich dessert wines, so by the 1990s prices had risen dramatically and there was an enthusiastic band of well-heeled consumers who’d got the sweet wine bug and who would pay. The only other French region with a classic sweet wine tradition was the Loire Valley, and during the 1990s, the Loire was luckier than Bordeaux with its weather. Spurred on by promises of the mighty dollar and with a brood of young winemakers much more aware of the modern wine world than their parents, the misty side valleys of the Loire, and in particular Bonnezeaux, Quarts de Chaume and Coteaux du Layon south of Angers, produced a series of gorgeous, rich, and startlingly original sweet wines from noble-rotted Chenin Blanc grapes. Suddenly Chenin had a standard-bearer for quality. But the noble rot which Chenin enthusiastically welcomes occurs in just these few rare side valley sites. The rest of the Loire has traditionally struggled to make even half-decent dry wine from the slow-ripening Chenin. Yet success breeds success. New World winery attitudes of cleanliness, discipline, attention to detail, and in the vineyards lower yields, better growing methods and that old-fashioned virtue – the courage to wait out poor autumn weather until your grapes are ripe – these have transformed dry Chenin in the Loire. Bone dry, yes, but streaked with minerals and softened with angelica and honey.
In South Africa, as much Chenin gets ripped out as is re-planted, but the story here is the old vines, in Stellenbosch, Paarl, up to Malmesbury and into the Swartland, where hardy bush vines sprawl across the dry hillsides and produce grapes of quince and peach syrup wildness that add nut intensity and sour cream richness by being fermented in oak. The final result is wines of shocking, unnerving brilliance, to drink or to age for a decade, and are possibly the best white wines in South Africa.
Why doesn’t anyone else do it? Chenin isn’t famous, isn’t popular and so is an absolute bastard to sell, unlike Chardonnay or Sauvignon. It would be nice to say: Chenin is on the march, the world is getting the message. But it isn’t. And it isn’t.
A glance at this map might make one think that Chenin Blanc is one of the world’s favourite grapes. It covers nearly a quarter of the vineyard in South Africa; it flourishes in some of California’s warmest spots; Argentina produces it in abundance. It can be found in Canada, New York, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Uruguay and Mexico. Yet, with a few exceptions, none of these plantings produce wines that are interesting enough to warrant international attention.
The reason Chenin Blanc can be regarded as a classic white grape variety is one small region of France and a few patches of old vines in South Africa. Anjou-Touraine, where the vineyards cluster on the river Loire and its tributaries, is the source of startlingly intense, concentrated, long-lived wines, sweet, medium, dry and sparkling. Stellenbosch and Swartland produce small crops from bush vines that make South Africa’s most individual dry whites.
Why even here? Especially when Anjou-Touraine is so cool, and Chenin is so ponderously late-ripening. Growers there measure other grape varieties’ ripening cycles by how much sooner than Chenin their fruit is ready to pick. Yet this is where the human element enters in. Chenin is a vigorous vine and will produce almost as many grapes as you want it to. I’ve seen vines in South Africa so laden with fruit the vine needed propping with wooden posts. But keep the yields right down, in Savennières, or Saumur, or Vouvray, and the result is unique, steely wine with a flavour of greengages and angelica, which ages sublimely for a decade or more. In South Africa, the result is wild, funky, almost syrupy, nutty whites, rich yet dry. As for sweet wine, Chenin is prone to noble rot, and in the side valleys of the Loire’s tributaries, autumn mists and warm sunny days produce small crops of noble-rotted Chenin that is both piercingly fresh yet succulent when young and which will age for generations to a deep amber brilliance of honey and barley sugar and quince.
Chenin Blanc has been growing in the Loire Valley for hundreds of years, and probably originated there: in 1496 it was planted near Chenonceaux by Thomas Bohier, and some 30 years later was taken by his brother-in-law, Denis Briçonnet, Abbot of Corméry to the monastery of Mont-Chenin in Touraine, where he planted a number of different varieties, and it was probably from here that it took its name. It is a full sibling of Sauvignon Blanc, with Savagnin for one parent and an unknown grape for the other.
South Africa now has the world’s greatest plantings of Chenin – it first travelled there in 1652 with Jan van Riebeeck, the Dutch East India Company’s first Commander at the Cape and the country’s first winemaker: no doubt Chenin’s ability to retain acidity even in warm climates, and its obligingly high yields, endeared it to the early settlers.
It seems to be genetically fairly stable and less given to mutation than other very old Vitis vinifera vines: genetic variation is not regarded as a problem in the Loire Valley, and most growers approve of the quality of the commercially available clones, even if they disapprove of the higher yields they usually produce. So there are a few complaints.
One vine, sometimes referred to by Loire growers as a sub-variety of Chenin, is not Chenin at all, though it is a half-sibling and shares Savagnin as a parent. It’s actually Verdelho. A little can sometimes be found interplanted in the Chenin vineyards of the Loire: it is strictly forbidden by the appellation rules, but it’s been there a long, long time and because it ripens two weeks before Chenin, it can be useful in a cool year. Its association with these vineyards is hardly new: back in 1928, in his book Le Vigneron Angevin, Dr Maisonneuve referred to Verdelho as ‘an interesting cépage...which at first glance has a certain resemblance to Chenin Blanc’.
Château de la Roche-aux-Moines viewed from above the Coulée-de-Serrant vineyard at Savennières, with the river Loire on the left. The terroir of Savennières is far from homogeneous, but all the vineyards share a steep slope down to the Loire, and hot, dry soil.
The Moulin de la Montagne amid Chenin Blanc vines at Bonnezeaux. It’s windier here than in the Coteaux du Layon vineyards nearer the river but, in spite of this, noble rot arrives virtually every year.
Chenin Blanc grapes being harvested in Vouvray. The comparative rarity of noble rot in this appellation means more dry wines, and medium-sweet wines that keep the varietal flavours of Chenin.
Loire growers of Chenin Blanc both love the vine and despair of it. ‘It’s an ungrateful vine,’ says Florent Baumard of Domaine Baumard in Coteaux du Layon: you do everything for it, you control its yield, you cosset it and fuss over it, ‘and then at the moment of harvest, it rots, or stops ripening’. Perhaps a warning should be sent to South Africa, telling Chenin aficionados just what they are in for as they fall in love with the vine. When it is ripe, and properly balanced, it is wonderful, but unripe Chenin is nasty, and high-yielding Chenin is dull and bland. It is by no means an all-purpose vine, although that is what it was long used for in the Cape, where an increasing number of low-yield examples have emerged. Indeed, its main task was to produce vast harvests of thin wine for distilling into brandy. Now its ambition is to make South Africa’s finest whites.
France’s Loire Valley is marginal for Chenin Blanc, which of course is one reason why it produces wines of such great finesse there. Go even a little way further north and the wines become not so much refined as acidic: Jasnières is the most northerly appellation for Chenin in France, and the wines here are distinctly thinner, or pointu, as the French say. Further south, it is grown in the Languedoc, primarily at Limoux.
There are suggestions that the characteristic mineral flavour of Loire Chenin derives from a degree of unripeness. In cool, wet years, it has a flavour of green apples and hard, unyielding acidity, raw and unpleasant. But times have changed: growers point to global warming. They pick 10 days or so earlier than in the past and still have ripe grapes.
It is climate, too, far more than soil, that determines whether Loire Chenin is to be sweet or dry. Vouvray and Montlouis have much the same climate and make excellent fizz as well as bone dry, medium and sweet wines. Coteaux du Layon is less continental and more influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, and so gets more botrytis than Vouvray and Montlouis. Savennières is windy and less foggy, and thus less subject to botrytis; nevertheless, according to Mme de Jessey of Domaine du Closel, while at the beginning of August there is more sugar in the grapes in Coteaux du Layon than in Savennières, by 1 October the situation is reversed, and Savennières has the higher sugar. The picture is complicated by the abundance of rivers, large and small, in the region, which means that humidity varies from one vineyard to the next. The climate also varies hugely from year to year.
If it is climate that determines whether Loire Chenin is to be dry or sweet, it is the soil that gives the wine its style. Chenin reflects its soil as clearly as Riesling or Pinot Noir. Sandy soils give light wines which are attractive young, and which mature relatively early. Clay gives weightier, richer wines, and is conducive to the development of botrytis: Coteaux du Layon is rich in clay, with a chalk subsoil. Limestone gives wines with fine, scything acidity, wines from silex are vivacious, tingling on the tongue. Calcareous clay – or argilo-calcaire – produces perhaps the most rounded wines, with both acidity and weight: Vouvray has plenty of this soil, as well as some silex in the best sites. Savennières produces one of the world’s driest wines, and has dark bluish schist, fairly friable on top but very hard underneath, hot and well drained; there is schist and quartz, too, at Bonnezeaux.
In South Africa the two major soils are granitic ones, and Table Mountain sandstone. On granite soils Chenin is lean and acidic, with citrus-lime flavours; on sandstone it is heavier, with more pineapple, yellow apple, pear and quince notes; it has structure, but less acidity.
Chenin Blanc is vigorous enough to produce wine like water, if that is what you require of it. Even on the poorest soils of the Loire, it will give 80hl/ha unless checked; on richer soils it can do twice that. In South Africa Chenin is often left to overproduce to its heart’s delight. Though good producers claim to keep their crop down to 50hl/ha, greedy producers will produce at least three times that amount – and counting. Chenin at this level is simply not interesting: most of the problems of South African Chenin can be related to overcropping. The rest are probably caused by planting Chenin in regions too warm for it to give interesting wines.
Nicolas Joly in front of his Coulée-de-Serrant vineyard in Savennières. He is a passionate, almost mystical believer in biodynamism, the system based on the early 20th-century teachings of Rudolf Steiner. His wines are some of the most individual Chenins in the world.
For dry wines, 40–50hl/ha is a generally accepted yield if quality is the aim. (The legal maximum in Savennières, for example, is 50hl/ha.) For sweet wines, Bonnezeaux’s legal maximum is 25hl/ha, and most growers get 20–25hl/ha; the same applies in Coteaux du Layon. At Domaine Font Caude at Montpeyroux in the Languedoc, Alain Chabanon grows it for sweet wine on poor argilo-calcaire soil, with yields of between 5 and 11hl/ha.
To keep yields to these levels, a green harvest – i.e. a thinning of the crop in midsummer – may be necessary, as well as a choice of riparia or rupestris rootstocks to reduce vigour. Many estates also sow grass between the rows to reduce vigour.
Old vines, being less vigorous, also play their part. The average age of the vines at Château de Fesles in Bonnezeaux is 35 years, and at Domaine du Closel in Savennières there are some vines approaching their centenary. (Old vines give more complex botrytis flavours, too: botrytis on young vines gives floral flavours, but not much depth. With old vines, it’s the opposite.) Curiously, phylloxera seems no longer to be a problem at Closel. Here, Mme de Jessey has some vines still on their own roots, propagated by the age-old technique of layering; Château d’Épiré, also in Savennières, practises the same method on some vines. So far neither domaine has found any sign of the dreaded louse returning, but nor has anyone been able to come up with a convincing explanation. Phylloxera moves in mysterious ways.
One major factor distinguishing New World Chenin wines from Loire versions is the fermentation temperature. In the Loire temperatures of between 16° and 20°C (61° and 68°F) are normal: that’s quite warm for a white wine these days. But what the Loire growers actively want to avoid is the tropical fruit aromas and flavours produced by fermentation at colder temperatures: it is these flavours that distinguish New World Chenin wines.
South Africa has a fair amount of old Chenin vines, but it needed young tigers like Eben Sadie, pictured here with his egg-shaped concrete fermenters, to make people realize what a precious resource they were. Sadie and his peers are now producing an array of fascinating, powerful, rather wild at heart Chenin wines.
TRI, TRI AND TRI AGAIN
One of the keys to making great Chenin in the Loire Valley is successive selected pickings, or tries. Over a period of a month to six weeks in the late autumn pickers must be sent through the vineyards picking perhaps whole clusters, but more likely individual grapes, at precisely the right degree of ripeness. If grey rot, rather than the desired noble rot, is invading the vineyards, then affected grapes must be removed in separate pickings. And the decision on whether to pick today or wait for greater ripeness, whether to make a dry wine, a demi-sec or a sweet one, is made on a day-to-day basis and may change as the vintage progresses.
The Loire Valley’s convoluted map of soil and climate means that Chenin Blanc never ripens all at the same time. Grapes from warm schist soils ripen before cooler clay ones; noble rot appears more regularly where the river mists creep up the hills at night, to be dispelled by sunshine during the day. In addition, most producers have the option of making wines at different levels of sweetness. Every year, in other words, they are trying to hit several moving targets.
The degree of the grapes’ ripeness and the lateness of the season between them will make the grower decide how much dry wine to make. In a cool year in Vouvray a lot will go to make sparkling wine; in great years almost no dry wine at all is made. Philippe Foreau of Clos Naudin says that if your grapes aren’t ripe enough for triage, then they’re not ripe enough to make sweet wine. But here again years vary: in some years grapes of 12.5° potential alcohol will be ripe, in other years not.
Four to six pickings are normal for Vouvray, perhaps three for Savennières. The purpose of each picking depends on the year: growers taste their grapes every day. The first picking might be for dry wine; others might be for sweet. If, in a hot, dry year there is no botrytis, the grapes may be picked passerillé, or shrivelled; botrytis may arrive later, or it may not.
Château de Fesles in Bonnezeaux reckons to pick one or two grapes per cluster on the first picking, the majority of the grapes in the second and third pickings, and the remaining one or two per cluster thereafter. The third and fourth pickings, they say, are generally the finest.
In the Loire the flavour of new oak is unwanted. Usually a proportion of the barrels (one-fifth to one-third) is renewed each year. In Savennières chestnut or acacia barrels are traditional: neither gives a vanilla flavour to the wine, though chestnut gives a slightly buttery taste, and the flavour of acacia is stronger. In the New World the flavour of new oak is considered more welcome, adding toastiness and spice and considerable richness.
However, Loire winemaking has changed greatly. The producers acknowledge that what consumers want is less acidity and more fruit flavour in their wines. Clean Chenin grapes have shown themselves to be very amenable to skin contact – leaving the lightly crushed grapes to macerate in their own juice before fermentation starts. This brings out the greengage and angelica flavours. To reduce acidity some producers let the malolactic fermentation take place, thereby fattening the texture of the wine, and many age the wine on the fine lees, stirring the lees and wine together by bâtonnage. Even dry wines may be made with a few grams of residual sugar.
Bottling times vary: Philippe Foreau in Vouvray seeks wines (both sweet and dry) with high acidity and freshness; he therefore avoids the malolactic fermentation and bottles in the spring following the vintage; at Château de Fesles in Bonnezeaux the wine normally spends up to 24 months in wood.
Wine styles in the Loire have moved to greater ripeness; elsewhere winemakers are mostly still feeling their way towards higher quality. We don’t know yet quite how versatile Chenin will prove to be, but examples from South Africa especially and also Australia, New Zealand and the Americas suggest we could have a rising star on our hands.
The year that saw the beginning of today’s revival of Chenin quality in the Loire Valley was 1985. In that year, when botrytis was plentiful, growers rediscovered the art of selection in the vineyard. France was in the middle of a golden decade, the sun shone on a regular basis, money was being made and a whole battalion of growers suddenly decided to put quality first. Thank goodness they did. Loire Chenin had been on the slide since the 1960s, and we were in real danger of losing one of France’s unique wine styles.
Good growers aim for the greatest possible richness in their grapes; climate, along with vintage variations, soil and the exposure of the slope will determine whether the result will be sweet or dry, or in between. In Anjou and Saumur there is more chance of botrytis: in Bonnezeaux and Quarts de Chaume, the tiny subregions of Coteaux du Layon, botrytis can be relied upon to appear to some degree practically every year. Further up the river in Touraine, Vouvray and Montlouis get botrytis only about four years in 10. In non-botrytis years these sweet wines are made from overripe and shrivelled – passerillé – grapes, and this goes part of the way to explaining the difference in flavour between sweet Vouvray and Bonnezeaux or Quarts de Chaume.
Sweet Vouvray is much more likely to have the characteristic varietal flavour of Chenin: a flavour of apples, greengage and minerals, which matures to flavours of honey and acacia and quince. The sweet, botrytized wines of Anjou-Saumur are more likely to have more typically botrytized flavours of peach, barley sugar and marzipan. (Botrytis cinerea tends to destroy varietal character: see here.)
Soil makes a difference, too: Vouvray’s calcareous clay and silex gives different styles to the schist of Savennières and Bonnezeaux. Early bottling, in the spring after the vintage, and the avoidance of the malolactic fermentation (both more likely in Vouvray) preserve freshness; sweet wines given long aging in wood before bottling are likely to have more rounded, Sauternes-like characters. The sweet wines are seldom high in alcohol: 12–13 per cent is normal for Vouvray Moelleux, with the grapes being picked at a potential alcohol of 18–20 per cent. If the alcohol level is higher, the wine can become unbalanced and heady.
As a rule in sweet wine vineyards, the more repellant the grape, the better the wine will be, as noble rot infects the bunch. These Chenin grapes show typical patchy Vouvray botrytis – the bunch on the left heavily infected, on the right lightly infected and still clean and green in the middle.
Among the dry wines, Anjou Blanc Sec and Saumur Blanc are the simplest and earliest maturing (and up to 20 per cent of Chardonnay or Sauvignon may be added to the blend for Saumur); Savennières and Vouvray Sec are the most complex and longest-lasting. The maximum alcohol permitted in Savennières is 13.5 per cent: if in a very ripe year the wine has more than that, a special dispensation must be sought from the appellation contrôlée authorities. Expect this to happen more often.
There is a little Chenin Blanc planted in Limoux in the western Languedoc, where it is blended with Mauzac and Chardonnay for sparkling wine, and elsewhere in the region – for example, further east at Montpeyroux in the Coteaux du Languedoc appellation.
With 18 per cent of total plantings, Chenin Blanc is still by far the most widely grown variety in South Africa, even though it is in steady decline (it was 32 per cent in 1990). Its traditional local name, Steen, has gone out of fashion as interested producers, led by the Chenin Blanc Producers’ Association, set up in the late 1990s, begin to take the grape more seriously. Most is planted in Paarl and Worcester and in Swartland, around Malmesbury, and 90 per cent or so is crushed by the cooperatives. In the past much of the harvest ended up being distilled, but more recently has found its way into bottle, yet a lot of it still proves that low-quality Chenin is really not worth the trouble. There is still a lot of work to be done on identifying the best vineyards, many of which are very old, and on trying to discover which soils and climates suit the vine best.
Domaine Ogereau
A sweet, honeyed, botrytis-affected wine from top producer Ogereau using the Coteaux du Layon Saint Lambert appellation.
Domaine Huet
Huet is Vouvray’s most famous producer and Clos du Bourg was the first vineyard to become biodynamic in the 1980s.
François Chidaine
Montlouis is on the south bank of the Loire producing lighter wines than nearby Vouvray. This sweet wine is from biodynamic vineyards.
There is far more Chenin Blanc grown in South Africa (above) than in the Loire Valley, but it is only very recently that growers have started to take it seriously. Research into the best sites is only just beginning, but in all the Cape’s 18,000ha (45,000 acres) of Chenin there will be some exciting spots. These vines are at Fairview Estate in Paarl, looking out towards the Simonsberg Peak.
South African growers do not necessarily admire Chenin. What the French see as finesse and subtlety, they see as raw fruit and acidity. While South Africans are now putting some emphasis on bottle aging, they are still more likely to seek flavours of guava and banana, pear and pineapple in their Chenin than the sort of mineral tightness that takes 10 years in bottle to open out. Most wines have high alcohol and some sweetness, actual or perceived, and growers are finding that the riper Chenin is, the more flavour it has. Prices have shot up for top Stellenbosch and Swartland examples.
The majority of California’s Chenin is planted in the hot Central Valley, and is treated as a bulk wine suitable for inexpensive blends. It lacks the tight acid structure of Loire Chenin, and when made with residual sugar, as it often is, the result is a loose-knit and bland wine. A great deal has been uprooted since Chenin’s high days of the mid-1980s when plantings totalled over 16,188ha (40,000 acres); and in 2013 it accounted for just over 1 per cent of California’s harvest. However, occasional good Chenin wines do appear. The Clarksburg region in the Sacramento Delta produces some stylish fruit, and there are odd good Chenins from elsewhere in the state.
In Oregon, Chenin’s 1990 figure of 18ha (4 acres) has declined until it has vanished off the statistics. There is still some in Washington State, though here, too, it is in decline. Terminal? More than likely.
Plantings of Chenin Blanc are slowly declining. The current 700ha (1730 acres) of vines are widely scattered across the country. The wines have soft fruit-salady flavours; critic James Halliday describes the taste as ‘tutti-frutti’. However, the Swan Valley and Margaret River in Western Australia have produced some tauter, more impressive examples.
Every vintage in New Zealand seems to produce one or two Chenins of such balance and beauty – all greengage and angelica, flecked with honey, sharpened up with lemon acidity – that you cry: why doesn’t New Zealand produce more? Simple reason. You can sell Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc for a lot more money. So Chenin remains a marginal variety despite being very suitable for New Zealand’s climate. In 2014 there were less than 30ha (74 acres), mostly in the North Island. There is an occasional delectable sweetie made, too.
Chenin is quite widely planted in Argentina, mostly used to pad out Chardonnay. Mexico has some and there is a bit in Chile, Brazil and Uruguay, but it hasn’t caught on. Israel has some and India manages to make some quite typically greengage-y Chenin. But in most places, it is usually vinified carelessly, with cavalier use of sulphur, so it’s a bit difficult to know whether it could be any good or not.
Dry Creek Vineyard
Dry Creek is a Sonoma winery, but they grow their Chenin in Clarksburg in the Sacramento Delta, where river breezes give surprisingly cool conditions..
Millton Vineyard
Milton makes exceptional, off-dry Chenin in warm, humid Gisborne, using biodynamic methods that manage to keep rot and vine disease at bay.
The Sadie Family
Eben Sadie is a true original. Palladius is a majestic, challenging Chenin, made even more so by the label being in Latin.
Sweet Loire Chenin Blanc is one of the most long-lived of all wines. In Vouvray, the richly botrytized years of 1921, 1945, 1947, 1955, 1959 and 1976 are all still drinking well now; a sweet Vouvray reaches maturity at around 12 years old, and will last for a century. Coteaux du Layon from Moulin Touchais, a family company that makes a speciality of older wines, seems to be at its best with 20 to 30 years in bottle, though a decade in bottle would be a more usual rule of thumb for those who want to drink top-quality Coteaux du Layon at the start of its maturity. As so often happens, it is often the years with the highest acidity that last the longest; you can measure their progress in generations rather than decades.
Demi-sec wines also need about 10 years to really shine; again, this applies to wines from very good producers. Lighter, less concentrated wines can be drunk earlier. Good demi-sec Chenins will stay at their peak for 30 years or so. The finest dry wines are hardly faster to mature. Good dry Vouvray needs a decade or so; even sparkling Vouvray can last a few years, though sparkling Saumur (like the fresh, fruity, but bone dry still Saumur) should be drunk young.
Savennières reaches its peak after 10 years or so, and lasts for many, many years. When the producers of Savennières formed themselves into an association in the 1950s, one of their members volunteered to supply the wine for their first formal dinner, saying that ‘I have enough of the 1851 available to go with the main course’.
However, Chenin does go through a closed phase. It is delicious for a few months after bottling, but then may retire into itself for seven or eight years before it begins to emerge with the beguiling flavours of maturity.
No other grape can imitate the flavours of Loire Chenin Blanc. In extreme youth the taste of crisp green apples is mixed with greengage, angelica and something earthy, chalky, minerally; the dry wine can taste pretty hard in youth, particularly once it begins to close up in bottle. But even in this least generous phase you can peer through the acid carapace and get a brief glimpse of complexities to come. And trust your instincts. They do come.
In most cases acidity is a little less aggressive than it used to be, but that’s still comparative. It may be softer acidity, made less assertive by the malolactic fermentation; it may just be the riper acidity of more mature grapes from lower-yielding vines. Bâtonnage or lees stirring also helps to clothe the acidity in more creamy weight. So young Chenin is less unapproachable than it was. But this mineral thing is still there, and it doesn’t go, in non-botrytized wines, even when maturity brings a flood of acacia and honey, brioche, quince and greengage.
Botrytized Chenin wines have less of the Chenin green apples, and more of the peach and pineapple, barley sugar, marzipan, quince and cream that comes with botrytis. They are generally less weighty and alcoholic than Sauternes, and they never seem to lose that piercing Chenin acidity, however sweet they are.
South African Chenin can be rich, nutty and toasty. Other New World Chenins are more tropical – bananas, guava and pineapple.
Domaine Huet has been Vouvray’s leading producer for generations, making every style that Vouvray can deliver, from sparkling to bone dry to medium and luscious and sweet, depending on the quality of the vintage. However, their Demi-Sec – semi-dry – almost always makes an appearance, not quite dry, but definitely not sweet, and full of wild and challenging flavours. Mullineux are much more recently established in South Africa’s Swartland but are taking advantage of South Africa’s Chenin bush vines to make stunningly original wines, both sweet and dry.
Chenin Blanc makes wines ranging from averagely quaffable dry whites to the great sweet whites of the Loire Valley. The lighter wines can be good as apéritifs or with salads as well as with light fish or chicken dishes. The medium-sweet versions usually retain enough of their acidity to counteract the richness of pâté and creamy chicken and meat dishes such as the Loire speciality of pork with prunes. The sweet wines are good with most puddings and superb with those made with slightly tart fruit. They are also marvellous with fresh fruit, foie gras or blue cheese.
Synonyms & local names
Traditionally called Pineau or Pineau de la Loire in the Loire; Steen has long been its traditional name in South Africa but Chenin Blanc is becoming more usual as the grape achieves higher status; called Pinot Blanco in parts of South America and in Mexico.
LOIRE VALLEY/Bonnezeaux M Angeli/la Sansonnière, Fesles, les Grandes Vignes, Petit Val, la Petite Croix, Petits Quarts, Terrebrune, la Varière; Coteaux de l’Aubance Bablut/Daviau, Dittière, Giraudières, Haute Perche, Montgilet, Princé, Richou, Rochelles/J-Y Lebreton; Coteaux du Layon P Aguilas, P Baudoin, Baumard, la Bergerie, Cady, P Delesvaux, Dom. F L, Forges, de Juchepie, Ogereau, Passavant, Pierre-Bise, Pithon-Paillé, Quarres, J Renou, la Roulerie, Sablonettes, Sauveroy, Soucherie; Montlouis Alex-Mathur, L Chanson, L Chatenay, F Chidaine, L & B Jousset, des Liards/Berger, Le Rocher des Violettes, F Saumon, Taille aux Loups/Blot; Quarts de Chaume P Baudoin, Baumard, Bellerive, Bergerie, Forges, Laffourcade, Pierre-Bise, Pithon-Paillé, Plaisance, J Renou, Suronde, la Varière; Saumur Clos Rougeard, Hureau, F Mabileau, Roches Neuves, Villeneuve, Yvonne; Savennières Baumard, Closel, Coulée-de-Serrant, Épiré, Dom. F L, Forges, Laffourcade, Laureau, aux Moines, Morgat, Pierre-Bise, Taillandier; Vouvray Aubuisières, Bourillon-Dorléans, Brunet, Champalou, F Chidaine, Clos Naudin/Foreau, Gautier, Huet, F Pinon, Taille aux Loups/Blot.
SPAIN Can Ràfols dels Caus, Escoda Sanahuja.
USA/California Chalone, Chappellet, Dry Creek Vineyard, Graziano, Husch, Pine Ridge; Washington State Chateau Ste Michelle, Covey Run, Hogue Cellars, Kiona, L’Ecole No 41, Paul Thomas.
NEW ZEALAND Astrolobe, Esk Valley, Forrest, Millton Vineyard.
SOUTH AFRICA Alheit, Beaumont, Botanica, Jean Daneel, DeMorgenzon, De Trafford, Flagstone, Ken Forrester, Kanu, Kleine Zalze, Mulderbosch, Mullineux, Nederburg, Sadie Family, Spice Route, The Winery of Good Hope.
Ten sweet Loire wines
Patrick Baudouin Coteaux du Layon Sélection des Grains Nobles
Clos Naudin Vouvray Moelleux Réserve
Dom. Philippe Delesvaux Coteaux du Layon Cuvée Anthologie
Ch. de Fesles Bonnezeaux
Jo Pithon Coteaux du Layon St-Aubin Clos des Bois
René Renou Bonnezeaux Les Melleresses
Dom. Richou Coteaux de l’Aubance Cuvée les Trois Demoiselles
Dom. de la Sansonnière Bonnezeaux
Ch. Soucherie Coteaux du Layon la Tour
Dom. de la Taille aux Loups Montlouis Cuvée des Loups
Dom. des Aubuisières Vouvray les Girardières Demi-sec
Didier Champalou Vouvray
Clos Naudin Vouvray Demi-sec
Ch. Gaudrelle Vouvray Réserve Spéciale
Huet Vouvray Clos du Bourg Demi-sec
Dom. des Liards Montlouis Vieilles Vignes
Gaston Pavy Touraine Azay-le-Rideau
Ch. Pierre-Bise Anjou le Haut de la Garde
Dom. Richou Coteaux de l’Aubance Sélection
Taille aux Loups Montlouis Demi-sec
Bourillon-Dorléans Vouvray Coulée d’Argent Sec
Clos de la Coulée-de-Serrant Savennières Coulée-de-Serrant
Clos Rougeard Saumur Blanc
Dom. du Closel Savennières Clos du Papillon
Ch. du Hureau Saumur Blanc
Dom. de l’Aigle Crémant de Limoux
Clos Naudin Vouvray Pétillant Vintage
Gratien & Meyer Crémant de Loire Brut
Huet Vouvray Mousseux Vintage
Langlois-Château Crémant de Loire Quadrille Brut
Astrolobe Chenin Blanc (New Zealand)
Chappellet Napa Valley Old Vine (California)
Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc (South Africa)
Millton Te Arai Chenin Blanc (New Zealand)
Mullineaux Chenin Blanc (South Africa)
Sadie Family Chenin Blanc (South Africa)
When Botrytis cinerea attacks white grapes like this Chenin Blanc, the berries first go mauve-brown in colour and then begin to shrivel. At that point good growers will send the pickers through the vineyards for a first tri, with instructions to pick only the shrivelled berries.
Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley can be immensely long-lived. It can also be somewhat unfriendly in youth.
A good but not great year in Savennières. Many wines are now being made in an earlier-maturing style than previously; this chart applies to traditional styles.
Nowadays as rich as Bordeaux’s Sauternes, succulent, with a thrilling fruity acid that keeps them fresh and exciting for two decades at least.
Chenin dominates South Africa’s vineyards and the wine is increasingly good. Old bush vine Chenin fermented in barrel can be wild, toasty stuff.
This Vitis labrusca grape was the one that coaxed many North Americans into drinking wine, until the California wine revolution introduced them to Chardonnay in the 1980s. It is grown widely in the northeastern states, particularly New York State, in Canada and to some extent in Brazil. It is better than most Vitis vinifera varieties at withstanding harsh winters (conditions in Brazil are unfavourable in the opposite direction), but has the strangely aromatic flavour typical of labrusca vines. This flavour is usually referred to as ‘foxy’, but is in fact closer to the smell of mayblossom, wild strawberries and nail varnish, and is a long way from any wine aroma familiar to drinkers of vinifera wines.
The vine got its name from Concord, Massachusetts, where one Ephraim W Bull planted the seeds of a wild vine in 1843. It is successfully used for grape juice and jelly as well as for wine, which is often very sweet.
This is the Humagne Rouge of Switzerland, but its Italian name is Cornalin, and Italy is where it originated, in the Valle d’Aosta. The Swiss Humagne Blanc is unrelated. The grape known as Cornalin in the Valais is Rouge du Pays. There’s far more Humagne Rouge in the Valais than there is Cornalin in Italy, however. It makes richly tannic, even chewy reds redolent of blackberries and smoke.
Portuguese red variety grown occasionally in the Douro. There’s the odd patch in Australia and South Africa. It makes attractive light wines, but is quite susceptible to disease.
Despite the high prices charged for Cortese’s most famous wine, Gavi, this Italian grape is traditionally seldom more than pleasant. It is now showing that it can muster an attractively full texture to go with its typical apple peel and lemon zest austerity. It has the virtue of retaining its acidity even in hot summers, which makes it a good bet in its homeland, northwest Italy. Plantings are concentrated in Piedmont, and spill over the border into Lombardy. Gavi from the town of Gavi, now called Gavi del commune di Gavi, is usually better than plain Gavi. In other parts of Piedmont and Lombardy it produces DOC wines including Cortese del Alto Monferrato and Colli Tortonesi; it is also part of the blend in Bianco di Custoza.
At its best it has good body and a nose of limes and greengages, but yields must be kept down if the wine is to have sufficient body to balance the acidity. In cool summers the acidity dominates and the wine can be unattractively lean. Some producers use barrique fermentation or put some of the wine through the malolactic fermentation in an attempt to rectify this. Best producers: (Italy) Battistina, Bergaglio, Gian Piero Broglia, La Chiara, Chiarlo, La Giustiniana, F Martinetti, San Pietro, La Scolca, Castello di Tassarola, Villa Sparina.
Corvina is the mainstay of Valpolicella and Bardolino, both of them light red wines from northeastern Italy. It will therefore come as no surprise to learn that Corvina seldom has much colour or tannin, but what it does bring to the party are aroma and acidity. When it is overcropped, as it all too often is, its wines are insubstantial and poor quality, as any drinker of inexpensive Valpolicella will testify. But on good hillside sites, and on the right soil – volcanic toar, which gives the most perfumed wines, or chalk, or alluvial – it can produce wines of considerable charm, lush texture and floral, cherryish perfume. Controlling yields can be a problem, because the first few buds on the cane don’t fruit; it therefore needs a long cane, and pergola or spalliera training, to produce a crop at all.
Corvina really comes into its own as a grape for drying to make recioto and amarone wines. It has small berries with thick skins, the latter helping to protect the grapes from rot while they shrivel. Best producers: (Italy) Accordini, Allegrini, Antolini, Bertani, Boscaini, Brunelli, Tommaso Bussola, Castellani Viviani, Corte Sant’Alda, Dal Forno, Gamba, Guerrieri-Rizzardi, Masi, Quintarelli, Le Ragose, Rizzardi, Le Salette, Speri, Tedeschi, Tommasi, Valentini Cubi, Zenato.
La Giustiniana
Gavi in Piedmont is the main area for the Cortese grape and it is usually bottled as a lean, lemony style. This is a more substantial single-vineyard style.
Corvina’s main job is to make light, juicy reds in Bardolino and Valpolicella, but it has a nobler role to play in being the chief grape used in the creation of Italy’s most famous ‘dried grape’ wines, Amarone and Recioto. Leading producer Masi uses trays to dry and shrivel the grapes in their winery loft before turning them into Amarone.
DNA fingerprinting has identified Corvinone as a separate variety rather than a variation of Corvina, and it is increasingly being planted separately, though most vineyards are still a mix of the two. It can replace Corvina as part of the Valpolicella blend. Corvinone has larger berries (as the name suggests), more colour and tannin and reaches higher sugar levels, and it does not have Corvina’s problem of infertile buds at the base of the cane. It also makes wines far more suitable for aging.
Cot is the proper French name for Malbec. See here.
A southern French grape that plays a small but valued part in some reds of the southern Rhône, Provence and Languedoc. Its close resemblance to Aubun makes it difficult to identify in the vineyard, though the wine is of better quality. It has a peppery, spicy character, damson fruit and good acidity, though not great colour or tannin, and it is tricky to grow, being low-yielding and late-ripening. But it is disease-resistant and adds body and fruit to blends. Best producers: (France) de Beaucastel, Mas Blanc, Romanin.
There are a number of Criolla grapes in the Americas; the name means ‘Creole’ and it implies European descent, indicating, usually, that they were grown from seed or cuttings by settlers. Criolla Grande is a low-quality, pink-skinned grape grown in Argentina for the most basic white wine. It still covers huge areas, especially in Mendoza. There is also a darker-skinned vine called Criolla Chica in Argentina; this is more properly called Listán Prieto, and is the same as the País of Chile, and the Mission of California.
This northwest-Italian grape plays a part in Gattinara and Ghemme, alongside Nebbiolo (alias Spanna) and Bonarda. But Croatina itself has the name of Bonarda (see here) in Oltrepò Pavese (Lombardy) and Colli Piacentini (Emilia). The wine is frequently juicy, perfumed and delightful. Croatia, predictably, makes a Croatina, but from an entirely different variety.
A neutral French grape now abandoned by France, but still found in decreasing amounts in South Africa. It is concentrated in the Paarl and Stellenbosch regions and is mainly used in blends. On its own the wine is fairly steely. It is known there as Cape Riesling, South African Riesling or Paarl Riesling. (Proper Riesling is called Weisser or Rhine Riesling in South Africa.) Crouchen has almost vanished from Australia, where it was called Clare Riesling until 1976 when its identity was established by ampelographer Paul Truel. Best producers: (Australia) Brown Brothers; (South Africa) Bon Courage, Fairview.
This dark Hungarian grape is being rediscovered. It’s low-yielding and gives good quality, spicy, vibrant wines with a touch of Pinot Noir to the flavour and a touch of Blaufränkisch. Best producers: Bussay, Attila Gere, Kaló Imre, József Szentesi.
Cygne Blanc is a white seedling of Cabernet Sauvignon, discovered by grower and winemaker Dorham Mann in his garden in Western Australia’s Swan Valley region – hence, of course, the name, cygne being the French for ‘swan’. First tastings indicate a soft, ripe wine slightly reminiscent of Sauvignon Gris.
Croatian grape found widely in Dalmatia, making fresh white wines with good concentration.
American hybrid named after the Ohio town where it was first propagated in 1849. Its flavour is less ‘foxy’ than that of Concord, and it ripens early, which makes it useful in New York State and Japan, where it is widely planted. It is part of the blend, along with Concord, for Austria’s Uhudler – a supposedly aphrodisiac wine I’ve rather enjoyed on the odd summer’s night.
Or Dimyat. Bulgarian grape that covers large areas in the south and east of that country. Its wine is aromatic and simple, and usually off-dry to sweet. It is said to be named after a town in the Nile Delta, from where it was taken to Thrace at the time of the Crusades. In fact, it probably originated in Bulgaria.
Criolla was the workhorse grape of Argentina for centuries, used for eating, juicing and producing everyday wine and these ancient vines were planted in Salta in 1862. In fact, the term Criolla applies to a number of varieties in South America, either imported by the conquistadores, or conceived in South America by natural crossings.
‘Little sweet one’ is what Dolcetto means in Italian, but, as I try to find a Dolcetto which fits its description, I often feel like a mother shaking her head in long disapproval at a naughty son who is anything but a ‘little sweet one’. Dolcetto wine can have all the sweetness and delightful winsomeness of a mischievous favourite son, but such examples are anything but common, and although it should produce the bright refreshing everyday reds of Piedmont, tannin, acidity and coarseness get in the way surprisingly often. Ideally Dolcetto should have moderate acidity, unintrusive tannin (at any rate, compared to Nebbiolo, Piedmont’s most famous grape), a distinctive suggestion of orchard blossom perfume, and an appetizing bittersweet twist at the end. And it should be drunk at a year or two, when it is hopefully still brimful of fruit. The fashion, however, is for Dolcetto that is ever bigger, ever more alcoholic: producers in Piedmont seem determined to make a grand statement out of what should just be utterly drinkable and enjoyable. Dolcetto isn’t really suited to the prestige treatment – it just isn’t that sort of grape, and traditionally it has known its place. Because it is not as prestigious as Barbera or Nebbiolo – and also because it ripens a couple of weeks before Barbera, and up to four weeks before Nebbiolo – it gets planted in the cooler sites not suitable for the other two – OK in a good year, pretty iffy in a poor one. It is regarded as being easy to grow in Piedmont and consequently few growers lavish much attention on it. Dolcetto is traditionally best and most characterful in the Ovada and Alba zones and Alba is now the chief production area.
Decent Dolcetto is quite common. Exciting Dolcetto depends on talented and determined winemaking. When Ovada’s greatest Dolcetto maker died, no one else was able to pick up the baton. There’s a little Dolcetto elsewhere in Italy – Liguria, for instance, calls it Ormeasco and produces some interesting examples. Savoie produces something similar called Douce Noire, and everyone thought the deep, dark, chunky, chocolaty stuff called Charbono in California was Dolcetto, but it was Douce Noire.
Otherwise only Australia seems to have any – and we’re talking just a few vines – but since the oldest ones go right back to the 1860s we should take them seriously, because they are probably the oldest Dolcetto plantings in existence.
Cherry flavours are typical of Dolcetto: ideally ripe black cherries on the nose and palate, and bitter cherries on the finish for that characteristic Italian twist. Less ripe versions – often 12.5 per cent abv – have a rougher cherry stone texture, cranberry fruit and an almost metallic chewiness. There can be flavours of prunes as well, and liquorice. If you’re lucky you may also find a wine with intriguing perfume, but, in spite of its name, Dolcetto wines are dry. The grapes are not even notably high in sugar.
Vajra are special in Piedmont because not only do they make excellent Barolo, but they seem to put just as much effort into the supposedly lesser wines like Barbera and Dolcetto. Admittedly, Dolcetto doesn’t get given the best vineyard sites, being early-ripening, but this example is full of power and spice with a rich rustic yet soft red fruit and buttery cream.
Araldica
An outstanding example of Dolcetto from the Dogliano zone of Piedmont. This single-vineyard wine comes from low-yielding, old vines.
Marcarini
Marcarini’s punchy, powerful Dolcetto d’Alba comes from 100-year-old vines planted, unusually, on their own roots. The wine is unoaked – and is all the better for it.
Harvesting Dolcetto in the vineyard of Aldo Conterno at Bussia near Monforte d’Alba in Piedmont. Dolcetto is generally regarded as the third-best red variety in Piedmont, after Nebbiolo and Barbera. And as it is earlier ripening than either, up to four weeks, it’s often used on sites too cool for the top two.
Dolcetto grapes are tremendously dark in colour, and need only a short maceration on the skins to produce equally dark wine. This short maceration is the reason why the wines are light in tannin: the grapes have as much tannin as any other, should a winemaker wish to extract it. Dolcetto is now being seriously studied for planting in Australia, and it will be fascinating to see what the Australians do with it if they go for it in a big way.
CONSUMER INFORMATION
Synonyms & local names
Known as Ormeasco in the Riviera Ligure di Ponente zone in western Liguria. The French region of Savoie has the similar Douce Noire, as does California, under the name Charbono.
ITALY/Piedmont/Dolcetto d’Acqui Viticoltori dell’Acquese, Villa Sparina; Dolcetto d’Alba Alario, Altare, Ascheri, Azelia, E Boglietti, Bongiovanni, Bricco Maiolica, Bricco Rosso, Brovia, Cà’ Viola, Cigliuti, Domenico Clerico, E Cogno, Aldo Conterno, Conterno-Fantino, Corino, Gastaldi, E Germano, B Giacosa, Elio Grasso, Marcarini, Marchesi di Gresy, B Mascarello, G Mascarello, Moccagatta, Fiorenzo Nada, Oddero, Paitin, Armando Parusso, Pelissero, Ferdinando Principiano, Prunotto, Renato Ratti, G Rinaldi, Roagna, Albino Rocca, Bruno Rocca, Luciano Sandrone, Scavino, La Spinetta, Vajra, Eraldo Viberti, Vietti, Vigna Rionda, Gianni Voerzio, Roberto Voerzio; Dolcetto d’Asti Brema; Dolcetto di Diano d’Alba Alario, Bricco Maiolica; Dolcetto di Dogliani Abbona, Boschis, Quinto Chionetti, La Collina, Del Tufo, Devalle, Luzi Donadei, Luigi Einaudi, Gillardi, Marenco, Pecchenino, Carlo Romana, San Fereolo, San Romano, Schellino, Giovanni Uria; Dolcetto di Ovada La Guardia, Giuseppe Ratto/Cascina Scarsi, Annalysa Rossi Contini, Terre da Vino; Liguria Lupi, Lorenzo Ramò. USA/California Duxoup, Enotria, Palmina; Washington State Morrison Lane.
Ten Dolcetto d’Alba/di Diano d’Alba wines
Alario Dolcetto di Diano d’Alba Costa Fiore
Boglietti Dolcetto d’Alba
Brovia Dolcetto d’Alba Solatio Brovia
Conterno-Fantino Dolcetto d’Alba Bricco Bastia
Marcarini Dolcetto d’Alba Fontanazza
Pelissero Dolcetto d’Alba Augenta
G Rinaldi Dolcetto d’Alba
Roagna Dolcetto d’Alba
Albino Rocca Dolcetto d’Alba Vignalunga
G D Vajra Dolcetto d’Alba Coste e Fossati
Marziano & Enrico Abbona Dolcetto di Dogliani Papa Celso
Luzi Donadei Dolcetto di Dogliani
Quinto Chionetti Dolcetto di Dogliani Briccolero
Antonio Del Tufo Dolcetto di Dogliani Vigna Spina
Luigi Einaudi Dolcetto di Dogliani Vigna Tecc
Gillardi Dolcetto di Dogliani Vigna Maestra
Pecchenino Dolcetto di Dogliani Sirì d’Jermu
Carlo Romana Dolcetto di Dogliani Bric dij Nor
San Fereolo Dolcetto di Dogliani San Fereolo
San Romano Dolcetto di Dogliani Vigna del Pilone
Duxoup Napa Valley Charbono (California)
Lupi Riviera Ligure di Ponente Ormeasco Superiore Le Braje (Italy)
Palmina Santa Barbara (California)
Lorenzo Ramò Riviera Ligure di Ponente Ormeasco (Italy)
Villa Sparina Dolcetto d’Acqui Bric Maiola (Italy)
A fresh, flavoursome but seldom elegant crossing of Blauer Portugieser and Pinot Noir, bred in Germany in 1927. It yields well, ripens well and is disease-resistant. Barrel aging seems to suit. It’s mostly found in Franken.
Iberian grape grown (as Doña Branca) in the north of Portugal, but not related to Doña Blanca over the border in Spain. Perish the thought. It forms part of the white port blend but is also grown for unfortified wines which can be strongly perfumed.
This is the new official name for Arinto no Douro and its synonyms Arinto do Douro, Arinto do Interior and Arinto de Trás-os-Montes. Arinto is a confusingly popular name for Portuguese white grapes, unfortunately. Arinto do Dão is Malvasia Fina, and Arinto de Bucelas is Bical. Dorinto is far less widely cultivated than Arinto de Bucelas, and appears in Transmontano, Duriense and occasionally in old mixed vineyards in the Douro. The wines are interesting, citrus and flavoursome.
Some of Germany’s most attractive red wines are made wholly or in part from Dornfelder. True, they may not be great wines in the world-class league, and they can’t really compete with the good-to-fantastic Pinot Noirs or Spätburgunders that Germany is now making. There’s a certain honesty about Dornfelder: it doesn’t pretend to be more than a well-coloured, juicily fruited grape for short- to medium-term drinking, and it fulfils that role very well. Plantings in Germany are concentrated in the Pfalz, Rheinhessen and Württemberg, where even at high yields of 120hl/ha it gives decent colour. Producers who want to age Dornfelder in oak and make a wine that will age for a few years will opt for lower yields.
Dornfelder is the 1956 offspring of Helfensteiner and Heroldrebe, which are themselves crossings bred in Germany in the 20th century. Dornfelder’s pedigree is exceedingly complicated, and includes all of Germany’s major red vines; it is also the parent of several new crossings, bred at Württemberg and introduced in 1999: Acolon is Lemberger x Dornfelder; Cabernet Dorsa is Dornfelder x Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Dorio is another Dornfelder-Cabernet Sauvignon crossing. Dornfelder is also found in England, where its wines are often blended with Pinot Noir and, as well as decent rosé, it gives some of England’s few full-flavoured reds. There’s a bit, too, in the Czech Republic, California, New York and elsewhere. Best producers: (England) Chapel Down, Denbies, Stanlake Park; (Germany) Graf Adelmann, Drautz-Able, Lingenfelder.
This is not a name one’s likely to see in big letters on a wine label, to be honest, but it’s here because it’s the correct name for both the Charbono grape grown in California (which is not the same as the Charbono that used to be found in Piedmont) and the Bonarda grape grown in Argentina – which, naturally, is not the same as the Bonarda (any of them) found in Italy. Douce Noire originates in the French region of Savoie, but there’s little left there now. It makes pleasantly fruity wine.
This white grape is known as Canaiolo Bianco in Tuscany, but it’s less confusing to call it Drupeggio because Canaiolo Bianco is a synonym for several varieties in Tuscany, including the better known Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Drupeggio is a minority part of the Orvieto blend and is grown in other parts of the Umbria and also in Lazio.
A dark-skinned, red-fleshed German crossing introduced to vineyards in the 20th century and found in the Pfalz, Rheinhessen and Baden regions. Its colour is its chief attraction; it‘s early-ripening, susceptible to drought and powdery mildew, and not big on flavour.
Deep-coloured grape found in southwest France, where it is blended with other local grapes such as Négrette and Fer. The wine is peppery and structured. Plantings are slowly on the increase.
A 19th-century crossing, probably of Peloursin and Syrah, which became popular in the south of France because of its resistance to downy mildew, though not for any other quality. Durif produces coarse, rustic red wine and plantings have virtually disappeared from French vineyards.
Dornfelder manages to balance high yields with deep colour and decent juicy flavours. This makes it popular in Germany's Pfalz and Rheinhessen regions, but these vines are at Denbies Vineyards in Surrey, England, where it still ripens well enough to give full-coloured reds and spicy rosés.
De Bortoli
Durif has shown itself to be particularly well suited to Australia's hot, irrigated Riverina region, and can produce dark reds of power and perfume.
In recent years it has been most famous as the alter ego of California’s Petite Sirah (see here), although some of the latter turned out to be Peloursin; well, it’s reasonable to look like your parent. In Australia Durif is grown under its own name, and produces dry, solid, four-square wines in warm climates that supposedly age for ever, and just occasionally, in Riverina and Rutherglen, wines of delightful perfume and depth. Best producers: (Australia) Campbells, De Bortoli, Morris, Rutherglen Estate, Westend.
An American hybrid found in New York State, in Pennsylvania and in Brazil, where it’s probably at its best. It makes rather ‘foxy’- tasting wine.
German crossing bred in 1929, definitely from Riesling, but no one seems quite sure what the other parent is. The usual suspect, Silvaner, has recently been ruled out. It was intended, like so many such crossings, to have all the advantages of Riesling (elegance, finesse, complexity, longevity) with a few more thrown in for luck, mainly earlier ripening and higher yields. The wine is actually fairly good, though acidity is low and quality is not nearly as high as that of Riesling. It made some impact in the Pfalz and Rheinhessen regions, but its success was never notable.
Elbling may well have been cultivated by the Romans, and it dominated the vineyards of medieval Germany and no doubt produced wines that were every bit as painfully acidic as they are today. Nowadays it is found mostly in the uppermost reaches of the Mosel Valley and over the border in Luxembourg, where both a red and a white version are known. Its main use is for sparkling wine. It yields generously but reaches only low sugar levels.
Much of Cappadocia is a remarkable, volcanic landscape with its fairy chimney pinnacle rock formations and its frescoed rock churches. It's an ancient Christian area and the Hittites were making wine here thousands of years ago. Emir is the best local grape, grown in challenging continental conditions which usually require the vines to be earthed up in winter. Even so, a devastating winter-kill occurs every generation or so.
One of the main Turkish white grapes, though in a country where most wine is red, that’s not saying a lot and there are less than 100ha (247 acres). It likes warm summers and cold winters and well-drained soils and makes light wines with attractive freshness, faintly leafy in flavour.
Potentially the best white grape of the Dão region in Portugal. Growers are experimenting with barrel fermentation and lees stirring to bring out its character and a little oak for aging seems to suit it rather well. At its best the wine is quite minerally, with some green leaf and floral aromas, and citrussy acid balance. Best producers: (Portugal) José Maria da Fonseca, Quinta dos Roques, Sogrape.
The earliest written record of Erbaluce in Piedmont is in 1606, and the vine seems to have originated in the alpine foothills here. Its piercing acidity makes it ideal for sweet wines, and Caluso Passito, made from dried grapes, is its finest incarnation. There is also some dry wine called Erbaluce di Caluso, but this has to be very ripe to combat the acidity. It can be a good, often very interesting grape, with attractive appley fruit. Best producers: (Italy) Antoniolo, Cieck, Luigi Ferrando, Orsolani.
Northern Rhône synonym for Marsanne (see here).
Ferrando
Erbaluce is a high acid variety often at its best in 'dried grape' wines. Ferrando dry their grapes for five months in wooden cases before fermentation and aging in barrel.
The Sercial of Madeira is grown in many parts of Portugal, and on the mainland is generally known as Esgana Cão. Its unfortunate effect on canines – the name means ‘Dog strangler’ – is thought to be the result of its high acidity. It is found in Vinho Verde, Bucelas, where it is usually blended with Arinto de Bucelas, and the Douro Valley. See Sercial here.
A source of light red Vinho Verde in northern Portugal. The Espadeiro grown further south around Lisbon is, in fact, Trincadeira, alias Tinta Amarela.
This is the new official name for Faber, but the grape itself has not, alas, become any more interesting. It’s a generally uninspiring crossing, either of Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc) and Müller-Thurgau or of Silvaner and Pinot Blanc, bred in the 1920s and favoured in Germany’s Rheinhessen region for its high sugar levels, high acidity and ability to ripen in cooler sites than those needed by Riesling. It nevertheless lacks the cardinal virtues of flavour and character, and is now on the decline.
Falanghina is now one of Italy’s new star white grapes; and to go with its new status it has a new and correct pedigree. Its new name differentiates it from Falanghina Beneventana, which also grows in Campania more locally, in the province of Benevento near Naples. The two varieties seem to be unrelated, and either way, you’ll normally just see Falanghina on the label. Falanghina Fleagrea is an old grape, first mentioned in a poem in 1666. It has good acidity, an elegant apricot-tinged nose and palate and good weight and structure. It’s like a more subtle yet scented version of Fiano, and while some producers like to emphasize the aroma, others, true to the Italian distrust of aromatic wines, keep it well controlled. Either way, it’s a lovely wine.
Favorita, with its large berries, can double as a table grape, though now its popularity as a wine grape seems to be gently increasing again, the table might have to do without. Its home is in Piedmont, where it grows in the Roero and Langhe zones.
Its wine is well structured and with good acidity, but without much aroma except on the rare occasions it evokes a fleeting memory of pears. At its weightiest and ripest it resembles good Vermentino – what a surprise, because latest research implies they’re the same vine – but that doesn’t mean that Vermentino grown down on the coast is going to taste the same as Favorita from inland Piedmont. It is late ripening and is sometimes blended with Nebbiolo to soften the latter. Best producer: (Italy) Deltetto, Gianni Gagliardo.
Chasselas is known by this name in Switzerland’s Valais region. See here.
Fer, or Fer Servadou, lends its perfumed, redcurrant fruit to a variety of blends in southwest France. It is a minority grape almost everywhere, though plays a more substantial part in the Marcillac, Entraygues et le Fel, and Estaing vineyards. It is also found in Madiran, though only to a small extent. It is actually quite a good grape, with concentration and character, and for once it’s not on the decrease. In fact its suppleness means that it is useful in softening Tannat, and making the latter’s wines approachable earlier.
There is a vine called Fer grown in Argentina, but it is believed to be a clone of Malbec. Fer is a grandparent of Carmenère, and originated either in southwest France or further south and west in the Spanish Basque country. Best producers: (France) du Cros, Laurens, Producteurs Plaimont, Marcillac-Vallon co-op, Jean-Luc-Matha.
A fairly aromatic and very versatile variety found all over Portugal: in the Bairrada region it is known as Maria Gomes. It is probably Portugal’s most planted white grape, and can make anything from sparkling wines to still dry ones to botrytized sweet ones, and can be successfully oak aged provided the oak isn’t overdone. The wine is best drunk young and some examples tire within the year. Best producers: (Portugal) Quinta da Boavista, Quinta do Carmo, Quinta do Casal Branco, Quinta das Setencostas.
The soft, vaguely Muscaty wine produced from this old eastern European grape is generally of reasonable, though not high, quality. It can be low in acidity in warm climates and ultimately lacks much character, though its gently peachy wine is agreeable enough. Romania boasts two Feteascǎs: Alba, and Regalǎ, which is a crossing of Feteascǎ Alba and Grasa, and dates from the 1920s. Feteascǎ Regalǎ is the later ripening of the two, and by far the most planted. Its wine has more finesse and makes good rich late-harvest versions. Romania has large plantings of both Feteascǎs, and there is some in Hungary, Bulgaria, the Ukraine and Moldova. Feteascǎ Alba and Feteascǎ Regalǎ are similar to Leányka and Királyleányka in Hungary. The dark-skinned version, Feteascǎ Neagra, is less widely grown but gives good spicy red in Romania and Moldova. Best producer: (Romania) Cotnari Cellars.
Interesting, high-quality and very fashionable southern Italian grape responsible for Campania’s aromatic Fiano di Avellino. At their best the wines are weighty and honeyed with notes of flowers and spice, and have the potential to improve in bottle. It’s also proving a considerable success in Sicily and several growers in South Australia are giving it a go (Clare Valley’s Jeffrey Grosset is one). Best producers: (Australia) Coriole, Fox Gordon, Jacob's Creek; (Italy) Colli di Lapio, Di Majo Norante, Ferrara, Feudi di San Gregorio, Mastroberardino, Paternoster, Planeta, Giovanni Struzziero, Terredora, Vadiaperti.
Mastroberardino
Mastroberardino took the lead in reviving Campania's historic varieties in the 1970s. Fiano may be directly descended from the varieties of Roman times.
The name means ‘Round Leaf’ in Italian, and this Tuscan variety, which almost disappeared from the vineyards in the 1980s before being rediscovered, is a minority part of the Chianti Classico blend. It contributes colour, power and the ability to age.
Folle Blanche is rapidly becoming superfluous to requirements in western France, where once it flourished. In the Gers it is known as Piquepoul or Picpoul, but it is unrelated to true Picpoul (see here). It was widely grown for distillation into Cognac and Armagnac until the onset of phylloxera, but is susceptible to rot and has since been largely supplanted in these regions by other varieties, notably Ugni Blanc (although brandy from Folle Blanche is generally better than that from Ugni Blanc). As Gros Plant it is grown for the VDQS wine of the same name near Nantes in the western Loire, but here too demand is falling, and growers are replacing it with Chardonnay for Vin de Pays du Jardin de la France. It is late ripening, and must be picked two weeks after Melon de Bourgogne, alias Muscadet, the main grape of the area; its acidity is very high, and its flavour neutral. All of which implies that its wine is pretty horrible. Indeed, it is – until you plonk it down next to a plate piled high with fruits de mer – and then, just sometimes, it’s the perfect wine.
Folle Noire is not related: this is a French synonym for several varieties, Négrette and Jurançon among them.
The Austrian grape Blaufränkisch (see here) sometimes takes this name in Friuli, in northeastern Italy and there are moves to use the name in Croatia too.
Soft, low-tannin Sicilian grape that makes wines of considerable charm and some aroma. It is usually blended with other red grapes, particularly Calabrese, Nerello and Nocera, but it has potential for light, fruity reds. It could have potential as a Merlot lookalike.
A love-it-or-hate-it Piedmontese grape, high in strawberry and raspberry aromas and acidity and sometimes quite high in tannins. The problems arise with the bitterness detectable on the finish, and the residual sugar found in many examples which can be too much for some people, though others find it quite irresistible. I err on the side of the believers.
It is thought to have originated in the hills between Asti and Turin, and most authorities differentiate between Freisa Grossa, which has large berries and large clusters, and Freisa Piccola, which has small ones. Indeed, Freisa Grossa has now been shown to be a different variety, and identical to Neretta Cuneese. Freisa (Piccola) has more character and perfume. As Freisa de Chieri and d’Asti, it has its own DOCs. Styles of wine vary: Freisa can be frizzante (both sweet or dry, like super-Lambrusco), or dry, still and more serious, but not necessarily better. Best producers: (Italy) Caudrina, Poderi Colla, Coppo, Piero Gatti, Giuseppe Mascarello, Cantina del Pino, Giuseppe Rinaldi, Scarpa, Vajra, Rino Varaldo, Gianni Voerzio.
Bottles of Tokaji in the cellars of Oremus at Tolcsva, Hungary. The blend is Furmint, Hárslevelü and sometimes a little Muscat. The colour matches the wine’s rich, golden hue, but sharp lemon peel acidity is also always present in good Tokaji.
See Sauvignonasse here.
Australian synonym for Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains (see here).
An Austrian red-skinned grape used for making white wine. It’s unrelated to Grüner Veltliner, but with the same parents (Roter Veltliner and Silvaner) as Neuburger, and a half-sibling of Rotpgipfler and Zierfandler. Sadly for its future in the vineyards, it lacks the character of any of those, and is mostly being replaced by the infinitely more fashionable Grüner Veltliner. It can also be found to some degree in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Very high-quality grape that, having survived the poor handling it suffered in Hungary’s Tokaj region under Communism, is now at last beginning to come into its own.
It originated in Tokaj, and was grown to some extent for sweet Ausbruch wines in Austria’s Burgenland region in the past, where it is enjoying a small revival now. Both green and yellow versions exist there, with the yellow being more highly prized. In Germany it is called Zapfner and in Steiermark, Mosler. It has been shown to be the same as Slovenia’s Sipon, but different to Romania’s Grasa (see here) and Croatia’s Pošip. It has also been shown to be a parent of Hárslevelu, and is a parent of Zéta, formerly known as Oremus, and also used in Tokaji.
Its advantages are its complexity of flavour, its finesse, its longevity and its high acidity. Young dry Furmint has flavours of steely smoke, lime peel and pears. Sweeter wines, affected to a greater or lesser degree by botrytis, taste of apricots and marzipan, barley sugar and blood orange and become nutty, smoky and spicy, with flavours of tea, chocolate and tobacco and sometimes with a distinct note of cinnamon, as they age.
The problem with dry Furmint is in expressing these flavours. The Disznókö estate has found that it is necessary to pick non-botrytized grapes for dry wine after picking botrytized ones for sweet wine – the opposite of what one would normally expect. If done the other way round, the acidity in the dry wines is painfully high and flavour is lacking.
The other problem is that the joint venture companies, who came after the end of Communism, have been mostly interested in creaming off the 10 or 15 per cent of the crop that is affected by botrytis. The aszú wines for which these are used are of extremely high quality, and in terms of longevity seem to be immortal. The companies are only slowly becoming interested in making good dry Furmint. Best producers: (Austria) Wenzel; (Hungary) Château Megyer, Château Pajzos, Disznókö, Oremus, Royal Tokaji Wine Co.
An ancient variety which is a source of sturdy, red wine in Calabria, Abruzzo, the Marche and Umbria. Its most famous incarnation is as Cirò, on Italy’s east coast – deep-coloured, alcoholic, weighty and often very good, especially if the producer has had only a light touch with the oak. Examples with no oak at all can be even better. Gaglioppo is currently attracting interest from winemakers, so we can expect to see more from this grape. Best producers: (Italy) Caparra & Siciliana, Librandi, Odoardi, San Francesco, Statti.
Gamaret won't be found far outside Switzerland. It is an unusual beast – a Swiss red variety with deep colour and fairly powerful structure. It is a cross between Gamay Noir (see right) and Reichensteiner created in Switzerland in 1970 and is becoming popular both as a blender providing colour and weight to Gamay and Pinot Noir, and as a varietal. There's a little bit in Italy and it is authorized for use in Beaujolais. I thought red Beaujolais had to be made solely from the Gamay grape, but there you go, what do I know?
The growers of Beaujolais have been enjoying both good times and bad times – good times because they’ve had several superb vintages which have shown off the results of a great deal of work in both vineyard and cellar. Bad times because it’s still horribly hard to sell Beaujolais to much of the world. An enormous gap has widened between the good growers and the rest, between the crus (the villages of Brouilly, Chénas, Chiroubles, Côte de Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Regnié and St-Amour) and Beaujolais Nouveau. The latter still exists, and is still released on the third Thursday of each November, but it’s difficult to know who drinks it. Good Beaujolais is delicious: mineral, focused, with fruit of raspberries, black pepper and cherries; it’s never overstated or blockbusting, but it has character, balanced acidity, lightness and freshness. It’s made with conventional red-wine vinification techniques, usually; carbonic maceration is for the less serious wines, the Nouveau, perhaps the basic Beaujolais.
Plain Beaujolais comes from the flatter southern part of the region, where the soil is sedimentary clay and limestone, while Villages wines (39 villages may call their wine Beaujolais-Villages) and the Crus come from the granite hills of the North. The vines are trained in gobelet form, which tends to restrain their natural vigour. Simple Beaujolais and Beaujolais Villages is meant to be drunk young, and that applies equally to Gamay from elsewhere. Cru wines will improve with a couple of years’ aging, and the longest-lasting – Moulin-à-Vent, Morgon, Chénas and Juliénas – will improve for up to 10 years, gaining a character not unlike that of mature Pinot Noir.
Gamay needs very particular conditions for it to excel. The decomposed granite soils of Beaujolais' best villages seem to be ideal. There are 10 top villages, called ‘crus’. These vines are growing at Régnié, the most recently created ‘cru’.
North of Beaujolais in the Mâconnais and Côte Chalonnaise, the vine has been losing ground to Chardonnay. In the Ardèche and along the Loire Valley, in Touraine and in regions to the west, it flourishes on flinty silex soil, producing light, peppery wines with good aroma. It’s also important in Savoie. In Switzerland it is often blended with Pinot Noir to the advantage of neither: the blends are called Dôle or Goron (this has slightly more Gamay) and often taste rather thick and dull.
Gamay was introduced to Italy in 1825, but there is only a little there now. It can be found, however, throughout eastern Europe, especially in the Balkans. It is often confused with Blaufränkisch (see here). Its early-budding, early-ripening nature makes it suitable for cool climates, though spring frosts can be a problem. There are occasional plantings in Canada and New Zealand, both countries where it could be interesting.
California boasts two grapes, one called Gamay Beaujolais and other called Napa Gamay. Gamay Beaujolais is not Gamay at all, but a poor clone of Pinot Noir. Plantings are gradually being replaced by Napa Gamay or better Pinot Noir, and the name Gamay Beaujolais was forbidden from 2007. Napa Gamay is more complicated: long thought to be true Gamay, it is now reckoned to be Valdiguié, a French grape so poor it has been pretty well kicked out of its homeland. Napa Gamay, too, is on the decline in California, but the occasional juicy, herby example makes you wonder first whether Gamay doesn’t have a future there after all, and second, what the grape variety really is in California.
Touraine also has some small plantings of Teinturier Gamays, with deep red flesh and juice. These include Gamay de Chaudenay, Gamay de Bouze, Gamay de Castille, Gamay Mourot and Gamay Fréaux. Their wine is robust, solid and unaromatic – quite unlike Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc. Best producers: (France) Aucoeur, Aujoux, Berrod, Cellier des Samsons, Charvet, Duboeuf, Henry Fessy, Janodet, la Madone, Thivin, Thorin, Pelletier; (Switzerland) Caves Imesch, Caves Orsat.
Pieropan
Pieropan pioneered high quality Soave and were the first to bottle single vineyard Soave wine. La Rocca is a limestone outcrop (most of Soave is basalt) that allows the Garganega to get particularly ripe.
Hungary’s Kadarka grape (see here) is known as Gamza in Bulgaria.
Garganega’s great quality is often overlooked because of the general mediocrity of Soave wine. However, good growers with hillside vineyards can produce excellent dry, waxy, almondy examples of this wine.
This late-ripening, highly vigorous vine is the main grape behind Soave, Gambellara and other Veneto whites. It spills over into Friuli and Umbria as well, but Soave is the wine most associated with it, for good or bad.
Good Soave, and good Garganega, is exceedingly good. It has both delicacy and structure, finesse and just enough weight, and a flavour reminiscent of almonds, greengage plums and citrus fruit. When made as a sweet Recioto, from dried grapes, it is intensely sweet with good but not piercing acidity; Recioto wines will improve in bottle for a decade or more, and even good single-vineyard Soave from top producers in the Classico zone can sometimes improve for nearly as long. Garganega’s problem is that its vigour has encouraged too many plantings on ultra-fertile soils in the flatlands outside the Classico zone, where it produces high yields. The wine then is at best thin, neutral and dull – a description which applies to too much Soave.
It is the same variety as Sicily’s Grecanico Dorato. Best producers: (Italy) Anselmi, Ca’ Rugate, Coffele, Filippi, Gini, Guerrieri-Rizzardi, Inama, Masi, Pieropan, Prà, Suavia, Tamellini, Tedeschi.
Torres
Torres use this label to highlight the ancient indigenous grapes they are saving from extinction. Most important so far is Garró..
The Spanish name for Grenache Blanc (see here) is the oldest and therefore the correct one, but there is a good deal more in southern France than there is in Spain. It is found in Spain’s northeast, where it is the main grape in the Alella DO, in which it is surprisingly lighter and aromatic. It is permitted in Priorat, Tarragona and Rioja, where it makes much heavier wine, but only tiny plantings exist. Best producers: (Spain) Celler de Capçanes, Masía Barríl, De Muller, Bàrbara Fores, Scala Dei, Costers del Siurana; (France) l’Amarine, Casenove.
See here.
A Teinturier grape that isn’t actually Garnacha at all: instead it is another name for Alicante Henri Bouschet (see here).
This old Catalan variety has been researched and cultivated by the Torres company, and is used in its Gran Muralles blend. It’s a small-berried, dark-coloured, tannic variety, with fruit that acquires leathery flavours. It’s good quality and the wine should age well.
The German and Austrian synonym for Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains (see here).
Priorat is known as one of Spain's most formidable red wines, but there is a small amount of white wine – dense, oily and powerful. Garnacha Blanca is the main grape and the Cellers de Scala Dei makes good use of them.
Garnacha Tinta/Grenache Noir: from Grape to Glass
Geography and History here; Viticulture and Vinification here; Garnacha Tinta/Grenache Noir around the World here; Enjoying Garnacha Tinta/Grenache Noir here
High on the skyline loom the gaunt ruins of the castle built by the popes during their sojourn at Avignon in the southern Rhône, instead of Rome. This was their new castle, their château neuf – and the vineyards spread around the castle walls are those of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Gnarled old Grenache vines grow in a soil covered in large white pebbles, or galets roulés, that retain the heat of the southern sun long into the night. The pebbles make good homes for lizards, too.
Grenache is one of the great wine experiences. It has a wonderful raw-boned power that sweeps you along in its intoxicating wake. It exudes a blithe bonhomie and a taste – all ruddy cheeks and flashing eyes, and fistfuls of strawberry fruit – that seduces you yet makes you think that surely it’s all harmless fun. But it isn’t. That juicy good nature usually hides a scarily high level of alcohol. And as your head spins from one glass too many – and it could be just your second – you realize woefully that you’ve been had again and when will you learn, but you hurl yourself anyway into the fandango of delight that is Grenache.
Grenache is for me the wild, wild woman of wine, the sex on wheels and devil take the hindmost, the don’t say I didn’t warn you. But many of us will have drunk more Grenache than we realize, because Grenache has spent the majority of its existence as a widely planted – indeed, until recently, it was globally the most widely planted of all red grape varieties – and alcohol-boosting blender throughout a large part of Spain and Southern France. If you drank a cheap Southern French or Spanish red, it was likely to have Grenache at its heart.
Grenache can easily ripen to 16 per cent alcohol all by itself – which meant that blenders loved it, and fortified winemakers liked it – but they were all a bit bashful about admitting they used it. ‘Junk grape’ some winemakers called it. But that didn’t stop big plantings all round the Mediterranean basin, in Australia, in California and further south.
It was the awakening of an interest in French Rhône wines during the 1990s that began to drag Grenache from out of the shadows. This Rhône fascination was led by the Syrah reds of the northern section, but attention swiftly continued south and discovered France’s great warm weather classic – Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Though it doesn’t say so on the label, this great, hulking gobful of pleasure is based on Grenache, and the wines can even be 100 per cent Grenache. As the modern age of instant gratification burst into life, Châteauneuf became a superstar, intoxicated with its own success.
Spain, too, had a slumbering legend that decided it was time to finish hibernating and start making a bit of a noise. Priorat, a dense, brooding red of enormous alcohol (as high as 18 per cent) made from tiny yields of primarily Garnacha grapes (as low as 5hl/ha) had been around for 800 years or so, but it took the rise of Catalan self-awareness and a bunch of ambitious young growers to revive its reputation during the 1990s and turn it into Spain’s Garnacha superstar. Then things got better. Forgotten Spanish areas like Calatayud, Campo de Borja and Carineña had large plantations of old bush vine Garnacha going to waste. New World ‘flying winemakers’ couldn’t believe their eyes at this treasure trove when they turned up to try to resurrect the various fly-blown co-operatives that littered the regions – field upon field of the kind of grapes they would pawn their granny for back home. Nowadays, you want Grenache/Garnacha happy juice? This is where you find it.
You’d think that the warm New World would have embraced Grenache enthusiastically. Well, they did – but primarily because it has shockingly high alcohol levels and you could make a pretty decent fortified ‘Port’ style out of it. California even abuses it by producing an inferior version of White Zinfandel. Honestly, you guys should know better.
But it is the Aussies who have taken Grenache to their hearts. Once Shiraz got famous, they looked around and realized they had piles of Shiraz’s Rhône stablemate Grenache in their vineyards – and what’s more these were often enviably old vines, giving concentrated wines of great depth. Junk grape no more. And what’s this? Mourvèdre? The third great Châteauneufdu-Pape grape along with Grenache and Shiraz? Old vines of that too? We can make our own Aussie Châteauneuf. And we’ll call it GSM – after the three grapes. A great big, irresistible, irrepressible party animal of a wine. From junk grape to New World classic in an uproarious, ribald cartwheel.
Garnacha Tinta is a Mediterranean grape par excellence. It clings to those warm lands as tenaciously as a tourist from northern Europe on holiday, and that’s just how it was long seen: as something undemanding, simple in its needs and somewhat raucous in its modes of expression. Like that tourist, it has only one thing on its mind: pleasure as undemanding yet warming as a few hours baking on the beach. What, sunburn too? No – but a hangover? Yes! Wherever Grenache grows, high alcohol is the objective, and those innocuous little rosés it makes in Spain, France and Italy are all far more potent than they seem – as anyone who’s slumbered through the afternoon after a seemingly harmless few glasses of Provence rosé or Navarra rosado can tell you. Like a package tourist, it has not travelled far from the sun, although it changes its name regularly from region to region: Grenache Noir in France and Cannonau in Sardinia. Even so, it has ventured right the way round the Mediterranean coast via Sardinia to Greece, Israel, Cyprus and North Africa in search of sun-drenched fields. But now that it’s being taken more seriously by producers, it’s showing that it can reflect its terroir remarkably precisely as well. Marc Parcé of La Préceptoire de Centernach in Maury calls Grenache ‘the midwife of terroir’; it always tells the truth about its vineyard, he says. If Garnacha is rustic and raucous, it’s because the producer’s work in the vineyard has made it so; treat it properly and it can have great finesse.
Most of the time it’s blended: with Tempranillo in Rioja, with Mazuelo (Carignan), Cabernet Sauvignon and others in Priorat, with Mourvèdre, Syrah, Carignan and others in southern France. In Australia it’s the comeback kid: along with Shiraz and Mourvèdre it had dominated plantings when fortifieds ruled the market, but fallen right out of favour before steaming back with a shout of raucous joy in the late 1990s.
Garnacha Tinta may be better known to English- and French-speaking wine lovers as Grenache Noir, but we give it its Spanish name here because all the evidence suggests that it is a Spanish grape that moved across the border to France and beyond. For once there seem to be no legends linking the vine with the Romans. Instead the Spanish are given full credit for cultivating the original Garnacha, probably on the east coast, in Aragon or Cataluña. One of its synonyms, indeed, is Tinto Aragonés – which should not be confused with Aragonez, a Portuguese name for Tempranillo. Aragon can, it seems, lay claim to having been the birthplace of both Spain’s major red grape varieties.
From there it was but a short hop to France – and even shorter when one considers that until France annexed it in 1659, Roussillon was part of Spain and Garnacha was probably already established there in the Middle Ages, before changing its name to Grenache and marching off through the Languedoc to the Rhône Valley. It was one of the first varieties to be planted in Australia at the end of the 18th century.
Garnacha Blanca/Grenache Blanc is the white-berried form of the vine, discussed separately here. There are also grey and pink versions (Grenache Gris and Grenache Rose), which are blended in the southern Rhône and the Midi with Grenache Noir to make fortified wines or vins doux naturels (see here). The downy-leaved red grape Garnacha Peluda is a variation on the same grape; as with all old grape varieties, Garnacha has undergone considerable mutation over the years.
Garnacha Tintorera, however, is not Garnacha at all. Instead, it is a synonym for Alicante, a Teinturier grape (one with red, rather than colourless pulp) which is found all over Spain and goes into many blends. Some DO regulations in Spain list the two names separately, others give only one name.
New Garnacha plantings at Clos l’Ermita in Gratallops, Priorat. This dramatically high, rugged region of Cataluña was once an inland sea. Now the vines on these mountains are planted up to 700m (3000ft)above sea level, and land prices are soaring. These are new vines, but the very best Garnacha grapes, from the oldest, centenarian vines, are in huge demand for wines that enjoy cult status with drinkers around the world.
Autumn at Gratallops. The crumbly schist soil of this area retains water remarkably well – an advantage in a region where there is very little rain – sometimes less than 400mm (16in) a year.
Torres' Priorat vineyards at Porrera are an example of the revitalization of the region which has made Priorat a powerhouse in Spanish wine. But the yields are minute – in some old vineyards as low as 5hl/ha.
Garnacha is the most clubbable of grapes, fitting comfortably into many different blends. Indeed, it is usually happier in a blend than solo – which is not preventing more and more producers, in search of a new grape name to put on the label, from making it as a varietal.
In some ways it is a useful grape in the vineyard, particularly in dry climates, since it laughs at drought. But it is an irregular cropper, and in irrigated vineyards where drought is not part of the gameplan, Garnacha may respond by producing high yields of pale, dilute, forgettable wine – though the alcohol level may still be high.
To get serious wine from Garnacha, you must treat it seriously, and low-yielding, old bush vines on poor soil have produced all the best results so far.
Having said that Garnacha shrugs off drought, one should add that it needs a drought-resistant rootstock to do so. Otherwise its natural resistance to dry weather is somewhat undermined.
It is a late ripener and loves warmth. Even fierce, dry winds like the Mistral of southern France do not seem to worry it unduly. Some Australian producers like to plant it on hilltops, where it gets whatever harsh weather is going. It seems to produce far better wine when it is stressed, perhaps because it is naturally very vigorous.
But vigour does not necessarily go hand in hand with resistance to all disease. Garnacha suffers from coulure, or floral abortion, which can cut yields to unpredictable levels; and is susceptible to downy mildew, and to bunch rot, because of its tight clusters. Marginal climates increase the risk of coulure at one end of the growing season and of bunch rot at the other end, if the grape’s late ripening pushes it into autumn rains.
Garnacha is irrevocably associated with hot, dry soils, preferably poor and well-drained. Apart from those basic requirements it is not over-fussy, though the best French Grenache often comes from schist or granite soil, or relatively high-altitude sites.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape has its famous, heat-retentive stones, its galets roulés, on the higher plateaux; opinions vary as to whether the galets roulés soils give the best wines. Schist is also important in Rioja, and especially in Priorat, where Garnacha produces some of its very best wines. Vineyards here are planted up to 700m (2300ft) above sea level.
Gobelet or bush training, with four or more arms, and spur pruning, with two spurs per arm, seem well suited to this vigorous, upright vine, though guyot or royat training on wires is increasingly popular. Garnacha needs to be pruned hard and debudded if yields are to be kept within bounds: yields of under 35hl/ha will give very different wine even from yields of 50hl/ha (the base yield for Côtes du Rhône).
But training on wires and using irrigation sensibly can give higher quality at higher yields than bush training with no irrigation. In Priorat yields from very old vines may be as low as 5–6hl/ha while at Château Rayas in Châteauneuf-du-Pape yields average 15–20hl/ha. Charles Melton in the Barossa Valley recommends no more than 1.5 tons/acre (27hl/ha). By contrast, Garnacha/Grenache vineyards planted for high volume and low or lowish quality, like those in California’s Central Valley, may give 100hl/ha, and maybe a good deal more; it is on such wines that the grape’s reputation for uninteresting quality rests. Low yields give structure; at high yields the grape’s tendency to low acidity is exacerbated, and colour and flavour disappear.
Anyone tasting a Grenache-based Priorat, or the Grenache-based Châteauneuf-du-Pape Château Rayas, would find it hard to believe that such powerful mouthfuls have anything to do with the lighter, lifeless jug wines of much of southern France, Spain and California.
Irrigation must therefore be treated with caution if quality is the aim. In Châteauneuf irrigation is permitted, though officially limited; in practice, things being what they are, overwatering is not uncommon.
The galets roulés stones of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, shown here with bush-trained vines, absorb heat during the day and give it out during the night. Not surprisingly, the grapes reach super-ripeness and give wines with high levels of alcohol. But the subsoil, of red clay and ferruginous sands, is probably more vital to quality.
Garnacha/Grenache reaches high levels of ripeness easily in warm climates. Picking late, at about 15 per cent potential alcohol, seems to give the best balance and flavour; picking earlier for (supposedly) better acidity and elegance doesn’t seem to work: you simply get green flavours and poor colour. The problem is, therefore, to get physiological ripeness without losing too much acidity: growing at higher altitudes can help, since cooler nights will help the retention of acidity. The other solution is to blend with some other grape for which acidity is less of an issue. It is not unknown for the alcohol content of Garnacha table wines to rise to 18 per cent without the aid of fortification, though a slightly more drinker-friendly 14.5 per cent is a much better mouthful.
These vary widely in quality. Some clones are highly productive, others less so; some have better colour than others, or produce more or less irregularly. Galet (1998) lists clone 362 as being particularly good for vin doux naturel because of the high degree of ripeness it attains.
Garnacha/Grenache must be handled gently: it oxidizes with extreme ease, and loses colour if care is not taken. The wine can have a tendency to green, herbaceous flavours, which can be made worse by the inclusion of too many stems in the fermentation vat. Over-harsh pressing or over-hot fermentation, both designed to extract more tannin than is natural to the wine, tend to give astringency. A long, slow fermentation, followed by a long maceration to extract tannin, is best, followed by as little racking as possible, to prevent oxidation.
In the southern Rhône and in Spain, old oak barrels are usual for aging. New oak, inevitably, is creeping in, and can help to prevent oxidation and fix the colour. Some think the flavour of new oak an aberration in Garnacha/Grenache; others welcome it. It is, perhaps, a matter of taste, but I don’t think more than a small percentage of new oak adds anything to a good Grenache’s unmistakably fruity style. If anything, it masks the fruit and strips it of individuality.
There are some winemaking techniques that you simply can't bring up to date. Mas Amiel make a fortified wine from Grenache Noir and begin the aging process by leaving the new wine outside in the hot sunshine in 70-litre glass bonbonnes for a year, encouraging the deliberately oxidized style called rancio.
Cast your mind back, if you will, to 1299. In that year the king of Mallorca granted a patent to a Catalan alchemist called Arnaldus de Villanova; the patent was for the process, which he had developed but not invented, of stopping the fermentation of grape juice by the addition of grape spirit. (One can imagine the conversation: ‘Well, that’s great, Arnaldus, but, like, what’s it for?’)
The king of Mallorca’s realm included Roussillon, and Roussillon went on to become a centre for the production of what is now called vin doux naturel (VDN). It still is; and there is a long tradition both in Roussillon and in neighbouring Cataluña (the two regions were both under Spanish rule until 1659) of using Garnacha/Grenache for these sweet concoctions of partly fermented grape juice and spirit. These wines may be made in a rancio style by leaving them outside in glass demi-johns (or bonbonnes) or wooden barrels exposed to the air and to hot daytime temperatures for several years, until they acquire a maderized, sour rancio tang of nuts and raisins and cheese.
In Roussillon, Grenache-based VDNs are made in Maury and Banyuls. Banyuls is generally higher in quality than Maury, and, in addition, there is a rarely seen Banyuls Grand Cru appellation, for which 75 per cent of the blend must be Grenache Noir, compared to 50 per cent for normal Banyuls. Styles in Banyuls vary enormously: some wines are fruity, some dark and concentrated, some rancio. Some may be 20 or 30 years old.
In the southern Rhône, the village of Rasteau specializes in a vin doux naturel made from Grenache. Cataluña, in particular Tarragona, also makes sweet fortified Garnacha, allowing the juice to ferment for three days, then adding grape spirit to bring the strength up to 15–16 per cent alcohol. In Sardinia, too, where Garnacha is known as Cannonau, some fine fortifieds are made. This practice spread to the New World, in particular to Australia, where Grenache, sometimes blended with Shiraz or Mourvèdre, provided the backbone for the country’s ‘port’ industry and produced many super examples.
Garnacha may be blended for these purposes with other grapes, often Cariñena and Tempranillo in Spain, and Syrah, Cinsaut, Carignan, Grenache Gris or Grenache Blanc in France.
Garnacha can be great, simple and charming, or dull and uninteresting. Only a very few unblended ones are great – but they should be enough to inspire the others. But are varietal examples necessarily in Garnacha’s best interests? Not unless they’re cleverly grown and made. The last thing the world needs is more overcropped, anonymous red.
This ancient vineyard region in Cataluña leapt suddenly and dramatically to the forefront of Spanish red wines (after languishing in obscurity for centuries), making dark, heady wines that sell at crazy prices. Yields are extremely low and the wines very concentrated, though it is noticeable that in recent years they have becomes less oversized and more balanced.
The old way here, and it still just about exists, is to make powerfully alcoholic wines that are almost black in colour. The new way is to make wines which have huge blackberry fruit in youth, with perhaps a bit of Cabernet or Merlot added for aroma; these wines are drinkable pretty much on release.
Of the nine villages in the DO, Gratallops is the leader of the new wave. The pioneers of the new style arrived here in 1986, planted Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot alongside the existing Garnacha (which covers about 40 per cent of the Priorat vineyard) and Cariñena vines, installed drip irrigation and modern winery equipment, and started to make wines with more fruit and more new oak than was traditional. With time all Priorat seems to develop a flavour of tarry figs; whether you think it should be drunk young or left to age is very much a matter of taste.
Vines are planted at between 100 and 700m (330–2300ft) up, on terraces if the angle of the slope defies gravity too much. In Gratallops the soil is schist, but the typical Priorat soil is Llicorella, a rock composed of stripes of slate and quartzite that glitters black and gold in the sun.
Curiously, Garnacha is less well regarded in Rioja than in many other parts of Spain, and it is the only red variety in decline in the region, having been planted heavily for volume in the past. Most of Rioja’s 6700 ha (16,560 acres) of Garnacha are in Rioja Baja, where the greater heat and lower rainfall suits it. Soils are mostly sandy here, and many bodegas like to add a proportion of Garnacha – 15 to 20 per cent is common – to their Tempranillo for the body and alcohol it brings to the blend. However, it tends to oxidize quickly and yields must be kept low if it is to age well.
Rosado used to be what Spaniards drank when they wanted something that wasn’t red and/or oaky; real men didn’t drink white wine, apparently. And Garnacha makes excellent pink wine: juicy, soft and only good young. Navarra makes a speciality of Garnacha rosado, particularly from the sandy-soiled, dry south of the region. Over half of Navarra’s vineyards are planted with Garnacha, though the proportion is falling as more red and less rosado is produced, and the growers are encouraged to replant with Tempranillo. The official aim is to have 35 per cent Garnacha and 31 per cent Tempranillo.
Garnacha’s stronghold is in the north and east of the country. In Calatayud it covers about 65 per cent of the vineyard, much of which makes rosado; in Campo de Borja it accounts for 75 per cent. It is more than half the vineyard in Cariñena and takes up a good chunk of most other DOs in this part of Spain.
Versatility is its key: it can turn out rosado and wonderfully juicy joven, or young reds if you ask it to, but if you put it into a barrel and blend in some backbone with some other grape, then you have a sturdy, oaky red. Quality is often best in the easy-drinking styles,
The secret of good Châteauneuf-du-Pape lies partly in Grenache, which forms the bulk of the blend, but partly also in Mourvèdre, which adds tannin and earthy, savoury flavours to the wine, and Syrah, which brings structure and fantastic perfume. It is often said, particularly by growers of Châteauneuf and Gigondas, that the preponderance of Grenache in their vineyards is the legacy of domination by the Burgundian merchant houses, with their ceaseless demand (in the past, of course) for wine of high alcohol to beef up their own pallid brews. AC yields here, at 35hl/ha, are low, and minimum alcohol, at 12.5 per cent with no chaptalization, is high. With Grenache, achieving the second is easy if the first is adhered to. But quality is mixed, and overproduction not uncommon. The most usual fault is high alcohol without the backbone to support it.
Mas Martinet
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah are blended with Garnacha in this top-notch wine from Priorat. It needs at least five years’ aging.
Gran Feudo
Navarra makes a speciality of Garnacha-based rosado wines. This example is strawberryish and fresh.
Domaine du Pégau
Paul Feraud and his winemaker daughter Laurence produce spicy, earthy, chocolatey and cherry-fruited Châteauneufs from a Grenache-based blend.
There is also some carbonic maceration done alongside more traditional vinification, which produces wines lighter and fruitier than the rich, spicy Châteauneuf of most drinkers’ imagination; as a part of the blend, these fruitier wines can be very attractive.
The soil of Châteauneuf is famously stony in parts: the big round galets roulés, or pudding stones, do not cover the entire vineyard area, and they are not essential to good Châteauneuf. Certainly, they retain heat during the day and give it out at night, but lack of heat is not really an issue in this part of the southern Rhône.
Grenache is also the foundation of Gigondas, where it can form up to 80 per cent of the vineyard, and Vacqueyras. Officially, the maximum yield in both is 35hl/ha, and wines with a fair amount of Syrah and Mourvèdre in the blend will have better structure and more substance, but if Grenache gets up a head of steam out in those torrid, rocky vineyards, it can make as burly, as chewy, as intoxicating a red as any in the Rhône Valley. Grenache is traditionally aged in large, old wooden barrels. In Lirac Grenache must take up at least 40 per cent of the vineyard, and makes reds and rosés; in Tavel it makes only rosés. Grenache is also the staple grape of Côtes du Rhône (apart from those sections of the appellation in the Syrah-only North) and Côtes du Rhône-Villages, and plays varying parts in the wines of Provence, Languedoc, Minervois, Corbières, Fitou and Roussillon, but it is here that we have seen the biggest changes in how Grenache is regarded. Many growers here are in love with Grenache, and it shows.
The most famous old vines in Australia's Barossa Valley are Shiraz, but there were fellow-travellers from France back in the 1840s – Grenache and Mourvèdre, the two main grapes in the southern Rhône Valley. These were initially disregarded as 'junk grapes', but old examples of these two are now highly prized. Langmeil has some of the Barossa's oldest vines and these beauties date from 1848 and are probably the oldest in the world.
Time was if you saw a vine in Australia, particularly in South Australia, it was likely to be Grenache. But that was before the fashion for Cabernet and Chardonnay. The vine-pull scheme of the 1970s ensured that many bush-trained, low-yielding vineyards of old Grenache were uprooted along with Shiraz vines of equal quality; but luckily some survived. They are now much in demand. Plantings are rising slowly but steadily again, and while blends of Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvèdre (known as GSM) are classic, there are also an increasing number of varietals. Some of these are excellent, though some lack backbone – the usual Grenache problem. Barossa Valley versions are intense, even jammy; McLaren Vale Grenache is spicy and lusciously rich and Clare Valley herby and memorable.
In California Grenache is used for both cheap jug wines, often pink, and high-quality old-vine wines. The vogue for Rhône varieties has helped it, and producers like Alban and Bonny Doon, show what can be done if the grape is planted in the right place. Washington’s tiny amount is good and juicy.
In Sardinia, as Cannonau, it produces some earthy reds, often of very interesting quality; there is also a sweet, porty, high alcohol version under the name of Anghelu Ruju from Sella & Mosca. There is a little in both Greece and South Africa, and it may yet follow Syrah into Chile. In North Africa, in common with every other planted variety, it awaits a revival of interest in winemaking.
Terres des Templiers
Astonishing sweet fortified Grenache that was aged for one year in glass jars out of doors, then for 38 years in 350hl oak casks before bottling.
Charles Melton
A deep, dark rosé with a touch of tannin which should be drunk young. Charles Melton is one of the leaders of the Barossa’s Grenache revival.
Yalumba
Yalumba are great preservers of Barossa Valley traditions. This Grenache comes from vines between 35 and 80 years old.
It is too easy to answer the question of how Garnacha/Grenache ages with the simple answer that it doesn’t. But some Garnacha/Grenache ages brilliantly, though it has to be admitted that the great majority is best drunk young. Most Garnacha/Grenache wines oxidize fast, and so ought to be drunk in the first ruddy bloom of youth.
The exceptions are the best wines of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and of Priorat, and good examples of these can both happily age for a decade or much more. Of course, loads of Riojas age well, but these are usually mostly made from Tempranillo: in general Garnacha/Grenache ages much better if it has another grape to wrap its fat juiciness around.
A good Châteauneuf, made from low-yielding vines so that the Grenache has structure and concentration, can last from five or six years up to easily 20: nearly as long as a good Côte-Rôtie. A low-yield Châteauneuf superstar like Château Rayas can last a good deal longer than that, but commercial blends of Châteauneuf and Gigondas won’t improve much beyond five or six years.
Many modern Priorats, despite their powerful flavours, are made to be drinkable early: they don’t, on the whole, have to be tucked away for very long before you can open them. Nor will they last all that long: 10 years or so is usually the limit. Traditional massive, black Priorats will last much longer, even up to 25 years.
The vins doux naturels of Roussillon, since they are effectively mummified by the oxidation process they undergo in barrels and demi-johns, will happily last 20 or 30 years, and don’t seem to change very much over a few more decades.
Australian ‘ports’, where there is also some Shiraz blended in with the Grenache, can age for decades, but they are drinkable sooner than their Portuguese counterparts, usually being a little sweeter and less fierce in their youth, and they achieve a tawny maturity much sooner.
Good Garnacha/Grenache has wild, unexpected flavours: roasted nuts, leather, blackcurrants, honey, gingerbread, black cherries, pepper, coffee, spices, even tar and black olives. As yields are progressively increased these fade into a gentle, soft leathery earthiness; the shock is that they fade rather early. That leatheriness is a telltale sign that the fruit won’t be there for ever. Young, vigorous Grenache tastes of herbs and strawberries and raspberries, as well, with often a certain dustiness to the fruit that speaks of those arid vineyards in Spain and southern France. Too fanciful a connection? Probably. Perhaps not.
And Priorat: I mentioned earlier that it seems to attain a tarry, figgy character with age. The blackberry fruit fades, and you’re left with something not unlike a Spanish version of Italian amarone. It must be something in the terroir as well as the grape, because you find it in Priorat of both old and new styles.
Rancio Garnacha/Grenache is leathery, certainly, but also nutty like tawny port and sour like cheese. Young rosado/rosé wines, by contrast, are all strawberries and cream.
Grenache was very much the forgotten grape of South Australia, dismissed as a junk grape only useful for making flagons of port. However, D’Arenberg realized that some of the McLaren Vale's oldest and most precious wines were Grenache and have been buying them up to preserve them and their fruit to make warm-hearted powerhouses like the Custodian. Finca Dofi is one of the great dark reds made by Alvaro Palacios on steep, infertile crumbly schist soils that yield almost no crop, yet the tiny harvest gives some of Spain’s most perfumed wines.
This grape comes in so many styles that it’s quite difficult to think of any meat dish it clashes with. Soft, low tannin versions can be good with spicy Indian food, where tannin doesn’t work. Barbecued food also matches these well, as do stuffed peppers and aubergines. Bigger, more tannic versions will go with roast beef and lamb, pheasant and duck and with the most flavoursome casserole in your repertoire.
Chilled young Garnacha/Grenache can be a good summer red, while pink versions are great with vegetarian dishes and strongly flavoured fish such as grilled sardines.
Synonyms & local names
Also known in Spain as Aragón, Aragonés, Garnacha Tinta, Garnacho Tinto, Garnatxa, Lladoner and Tinto Aragonés; as Alicante in France, as well as Grenache Noir; as Granaccia or Granacha in Italy and Cannonau in Sardinia.
FRANCE/Southern Rhône Achiary, D & D Alary, Amouriers, Beaurenard, Henri Bonneau (Réserve des Celestins), Bosquet des Papes, la Bouissière, Bressy-Masson, Brusset, Cabasse, Cabotte, les Cailloux (Centenaire), Cassan, Cayron, Chapoton, D Charavin, la Charbonnière, L Charvin, Chaume-Arnaud, Clos du Caillou, Clos des Cazaux, Clos du Joncuas, Clos du Mont Olivet, Clos des Papes, Jean-Luc Colombo, Combes, Coriançon, Couroulu, Cros de la Mûre, Delas, Espiers, Espigouette, Font de Michelle, Font de Papier, Font-Sane, Fortia, la Fourmone, Galet des Papes, la Gardine, la Garrigue, les Goubert, Gour de Chaulé, Gramenon, Grand Moulas, Grand Tinel, Grand Veneur, Guigal, Jaboulet, la Janasse, Jérôme, Longue-Toque, Marcoux, Monadière, Mont-Redon, Montirius, Montmirail, Montpertuis, Montvac, la Mordorée, Moulin de la Gardette, Mourchon, Nalys, la Nerthe, l’Oratoire St-Martin, Palleroudias, Pallières, Pégaü, Pélaquié, Père Caboche, Roger Perrin, Piaugier, Rabasse-Charavin, Raspail-Ay, Rayas, Redortier, la Réméjeanne, Richaud, la Roquette, Roger Sabon, St-Cosme, St-Gayan, Ste-Anne, Sang des Cailloux, Santa Duc, Solitude, la Soumade, Tardieu-Laurent, la Tourade, Tourelles, Tours, Trapadis, Trignon, J-P Usseglio, P Usseglio, Raymond Usseglio, Verquière, la Vieille Julienne, Vieux Donjon, Vieux Télégraphe, de Villeneuve; vins doux naturels Casa Blanca, Cazes, Celliers des Templiers, Chênes, Clos des Paulilles, l’Étoile, Jau, Mas Amiel, du Mas Blanc, les Vignerons de Maury, la Rectorie, Sarda-Malet, la Soumade, la Tour Vieille, Vial-Magnères.
SPAIN/Cataluña/Priorat Clos Erasmus, Clos Mogador, Costers del Siurana, Ferrer Bobet, Fuentes, Mas Alta, Mas Doix, Mas Martinet, Alvaro Palacios, Rotllan Torra, Scala Dei, Terroir al Limít, Torres, Vall Llach; other producers Borsao, Celler de Capçanes, Martinez Bujanda.
ITALY/Sardinia/CannonaudiSardegna Argiolas, Sella & Mosca.
USA/California Alban, Bonny Doon, Hope Family, Jade Mountain, Sine Qua Non; Washington State McCrea Cellars.
AUSTRALIA Tim Adams, Charles Cimicky, Clarendon Hills, Coriole, D’Arenberg, Hamilton, Hardys, Henschke, Kilikanoon, Peter Lehmann, Charles Melton, Mitchelton, Penfolds, Rockford, Rosemount, Seppelt, Tatachilla, Turkey Flat, Veritas, Yalumba.
Châteauneuf-du Pape wines
See Best Producers, left.
Dom. de Cayron Gigondas
Dom. le Clos des Cazaux Vacqueyras Cuvée des Templiers
Dom. les Goubert Gigondas
Dom. Gramenon Côtes du Rhône Ceps Centenaires
Dom. Lafon-Roc-Épine Lirac
Dom. de l’Oratoire St-Martin Côtes du Rhône-Villages Cuvée Prestige
Dom. de la Rectorie Collioure la Coume Pascal
Dom. St-Gayan Gigondas
Dom. Santa Duc Gigondas
Dom. la Tour Vieille Collioure
Argiolas Turriga (Italy)
Bodegas Borsao Campo de Borja (Spain)
Celler de Capçanes Tarragona Costers del Gravet (Spain)
Clos Mogador Priorat (Spain)
Costers del Siurana Priorat Clos de l’Obac (Spain)
Martínez Bujanda Rioja Garnacha Reserva (Spain)
Mas Martinet Priorat Clos Martinet (Spain)
Alvaro Palacios Priorat l’Ermita (Spain)
Rotllan Torra Priorat Amadis (Spain)
Sella & Mosca Anghelu Ruju (Italy)
Tim Adams The Fergus (Australia)
Charles Cimicky Grenache (Australia)
D’Arenberg The Custodian (Australia)
Langmeil The Fifth Wave (Australia)
McCrea Tierra del Sol (Washington State)
Charles Melton Grenache (Australia)
Rockford Dry Country Grenache (Australia)
Sine Qua Non Red Handed (California)
Turkey Flat Grenache (Australia)
Yalumba Old Bush Vine (Australia)
The colour looks wonderfully dark – but get Grenache into the winery and that colour can disappear with disconcerting ease. It’s not the simplest of grapes to handle, and needs to be treated seriously if it is to produce serious wine.
Grenache is increasingly beloved of wine producers who want to make rich red wines for early drinking but will keep too.
Incredible when first released, the wine has huge blackberry fruit which goes tarry two to three years later, and it develops an almost amarone style.
2010 was a very good vintage in Châteauneuf, with wines showing rich, heady depth but surprisingly fresh acidity. Delicious young, they will age impressively.
Vin doux naturel wines are bottled at various ages – 10, 20 and even 30 years old. They require no further aging.
Gewürztraminer: from Grape to Glass
Geography and History here; Viticulture and Vinification here; Gewürztraminer around the World here; Enjoying Gewürztraminer here
The Gothic-style, carved wooden spice cabinet, stork, and buttery, knot-shaped sweet pretzels suggest Alsace where the grape achieves its highest fame. The pomander, cloves, nutmeg and spice mortar are references to the word Gewürz, which means spice in German – but Gewürztraminer is a complex story. The wines are far more than just being fat and spicy, famous only for their heady perfume.
It must be tough being a Gewürztraminer sometimes. All your life, all you’ve ever wanted to do is to please people. And not just the odd person. You want to please everybody, and you’re willing to use every weapon in your armoury to win them over. So you doll yourself up to the nines. You preen in front of the mirror and spread out your vast panoply of make-up, especially mascara and rouge. And you ladle them all on to emphasize every single feature of your face. Might some features perhaps have been better left unadorned, possibly even muted a bit? Do you think your cheeks should be quite so pink, your lips quite so pouting and bright? Well, well, maybe not, but once you get started you sort of can’t leave anything alone. Can you?
And scent. Aah, scent. What should it be? A dab of something mineral and restrained behind the ears? But who would smell that? Something high-toned and floral with citrus notes giving way to autumnal orchard ripeness? Mmm, yes, yes, but you want more. You want the sultry tones of passion and seduction giving way to the earthy notes of exhaustion and sleepy satisfaction. You want to guarantee that nostrils will quiver from the first moment you sweep through the door, you want clouds of Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium, Calvin Klein’s Obsession and Giorgio of Beverley Hills to billow out before you, announcing the arrival of the one grape that no one can resist. Yourself!
Ah, if only. Poor old Gewürz. Not all wine lovers can take it. For some, Gewürztraminer is a parody of perfume and powder that sashays around them. For them anything as scented, as seductive, as voluptuous as Gewürztraminer offers far too thrilling an experience to possibly be any good.
It is strange, isn’t it? You get a grape that combines a most irresistible scent of lychees and tea rose petals with the lushness of tropical fruit, the bite of black pepper, and the intimate dressing room aroma of Nivea Crème, and instead of getting excited by the sheer sensuousness of the experience, they call it overblown, blowzy, boorish, clumsy and so on.
It’s true that Gewürztraminer does have its problems for the winemaker. Do you go all out for perfume and lushness like Alsace? Or will that put people off? If you make the grape exercise a little restraint, will it then come over as half-hearted? And is there any point in being half-hearted? So far the world has yet to find a more convincing model of Gewürztraminer than the Alsace one and a sort of semi-scented middle road is proving surprisingly elusive. Some simply try to be too polite, as though they admit their scent is a little common. Well, grow something else, then, is my general view. But Gewürz can be delicate and scented. Italy’s Alto Adige, Chile, California, British Columbia, Tasmania and New Zealand show it’s possible, but not easy. Lurking on the edge of all Gewürztraminer is an oily fat beast with a strange, disappointingly hard edge to it, and fruit resembling leftover marmalade on the edge of the breakfast plate. And critics leap on this aberration as being the real Gewürz. But it isn’t. And hang on. Bad Chardonnay is tasteless, lifeless stuff. Unripe Cabernet is stalky and tart. Poorly made Riesling is sulphurous and stale. Yet we don’t judge these varieties on their bad examples but on their good ones.
We should do the same with Gewürztraminer: pack away our puritanism, rustle up some self-indulgence and enjoy it for what it is.
If you want your wine all polite and well-mannered, you shouldn’t really be drinking Gewürztraminer at all. The magic of Gewürztraminer only really shines out when its sumptuous, exotic perfumes make your head spin and your thoughts go giddy with desire.
But for those of you who find such self-indulgence a bit embarrassing, there are some milder forms of Gewürztraminer available from wine regions all across the globe, as the map shows. But despite being spread widely, it is also spread thinly. In no region is Gewürz dominant, not even in Alsace, where it has a mere 18.6 per cent of vineyard plantings; yet this small strip of hillside in northeast France produces nearly all the great examples of the grape – luscious, weighty and laden with scent.
That very weight, that uncompromising, flavour-driven personality, is both Gewürztraminer’s calling card and its big disadvantage. Tone it down and you get a wine hardly worthy of the name of Gewürztraminer. Play it up and you get a wine that outside its devoted fan club is difficult to sell. It’s easier to sell high-priced Chardonnay than Gewürztraminer of equal quality, even at a much lower price.
So world plantings are not rising. It pops up all over eastern Europe, but results are mixed, to put it mildly. In the Alto Adige in northeastern Italy, its wines are lighter and more acidic, and much less exuberant and flavour-laden than in Alsace, Germany’s can be a little heavy, New Zealand and the USA make some very good versions, and the first few efforts from Chile are promising.
But nobody makes good Gewürztraminer by accident. Those who choose to grow it do so because they love its richness and are prepared to accept low yields and relatively low returns. It’s unlikely ever to cover the map: it can add fabulous scent to a dull white, but it is not an all-purpose wine. But with such an in-your-face personality, why would it ever want to be?
DNA analysis has completely changed our understanding of Gewürztraminer. It is now known to be genetically identical to Savagnin. The flavours of Gewürztraminer, which comes in Blanc and Rose versions, are very different, but this is consistent with Savagnin being one of the oldest grape varieties we have: mutation goes with the territory. Since Savagnin seems to predate its Gewürztraminer form we would, if we were being correct, list this grape under Savagnin. But we’re not – we’re keeping it under Gewürztraminer because that’s the grape that everyone knows best. Just so long as everyone remember that actually, it’s Savagnin.
How did Savagnin begin, and when was its Gewürztraminer form first noticed? Savagnin seems to have arisen in the area between northeast France and southwest Germany, most likely as the result of an alliance between Pinot and some other vine. Because it was a chance crossing, and because references to grape varieties in early records are imprecise, it’s impossible to be certain of very much, but Savagnin Rose seems to be a mutation of Savagnin Blanc, and Gewürztraminer seems to be a mutation of Savagnin Rose. Savagnin Blanc is also known as Traminer, the name commonly used for the much less aromatic form of the grape; Savagnin Rose, which has pink berries, is likewise not very aromatic. Gewürztraminer, which also has pink berries, is the super-aromatic form, and first appears in the records in Germany in 1827. From there it would have moved easily to Alsace, its current headquarters.
The Grand Cru Zinnkoepflé high above the village of Soultzmatt in the Haut-Rhin, Alsace. Gewurztraminer occupies less than one-fifth of the total Alsace vineyard area, and deep, rich, marly soils with some chalk, like the soil of Zinnkoepflé, suit it well. It is particularly happy if planted towards the lower part of a slope, where the soil is richest and deepest, but it also needs good drainage, so it won’t thrive on the valley floor.
Ripe Gewurztraminer in the Grand Cru Kitterlé at Guebwiller in Alsace. It flowers early and ripens in mid-season, before Riesling; late-picked wines have concentrated sweetness and sensational perfume.
The fortified village of Bergheim, with its brightly painted, medieval, timber-framed houses, is famous for its magnificent Gewürztraminer, especially from its two Grands Crus, Altenberg and Kanzlerberg.
Gewürztraminer is not the easiest of grapes to grow or handle. Its perfume is its raison d’être – all roses, face cream and lychees – but it must have some structure to back it up. Without structure Gewürztraminer speedily tumbles into cloying blowziness. And low acidity is its besetting fault.
It needs a long ripening season, and loves sunny and dry weather, but too much heat exacerbates the low acidity problem. All that perfume does not suit the flavour of new oak, but it can make glorious sweet wines, even though the action of Botrytis cinerea tends to destroy its varietal perfume.
If Alsace is the template for Gewurztraminer, then it needs mild springs, sunny summers and low rainfall. The last is the work of the Vosges mountains, which protect the vineyards from westerly rain-bearing winds: Colmar rates as one of the driest spots in all France. The sunshine continues well into the autumn, and there can be snow on the highest peaks of the Vosges while vendange tardive (late-harvest) grapes are picked lower down. Gewurztraminer buds early, which makes it susceptible to late frosts, and ripens in mid-season; too much heat will bring it on too quickly, resulting in a loss of acidity and aroma. But that’s the beauty of Alsace: for all its sunshine, it still has a relatively cool climate – and loads of sunshine and a cool climate equals loads of sugar in the grapes but appetizing acidity and aroma.
Much of New Zealand also has a cool climate with loads of sun – although rainfall is more erratic here and there can be unwanted autumn deluges. During its first rebirth as a wine nation in the 1960s, visiting consultants from Germany recommended Germanic grapes as the route to success in New Zealand and that is why a fair amount of Gewürztraminer was planted. Indeed, New Zealand’s first world-class wines may have been the early Matawhero Gewürztraminers from the warm, sunny though rainy, Gisborne region. Not surprisingly with the current advance of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot there’s still not a huge amount of Gewürz in New Zealand – the planted area was a mere 332ha (820 acres) in 2013 – but Gisborne can still excel.
Germany’s more northerly vineyards can be too cool; Gewürztraminer is a more natural choice for the warmer lands of the Pfalz and Baden. On the other hand, the high mountain vineyards of Italy’s Alto Adige – again loads of sun but cool – are ideal; however, few growers limit the yields enough to make more than mildly aromatic examples. Most New World countries have a little Gewürztraminer, but the conditions are almost always too hot to avoid flabbiness. In Australia, Tasmania and cool spots in Victoria have produced delicious examples and cool spots in Chile have just started to shine.
Gewürztraminer is fairly unfussy about soil, though it may be that the richness of Alsace versions comes from the soil above all else. There is certainly a spiciness that pervades all Alsace’s white varieties. Alsace producer Olivier Zind-Humbrecht MW, who has made a speciality of terroir, states that it is the high percentage of calcareous or limestone soil in Alsace that gives the region’s wines their spicy character. Gewurztraminer also seems to like a proportion of clay, and is best suited to rich, deep but well-drained soils, with plenty of minerals. For every Alsace grower who stresses the importance of limestone, there is another who stresses the clay: Albert Mann, for example, believes that the reason that acidity in Alsace Gewurztraminer can be low is because so many of the vines are planted on clayey soils.
Gray Monk vineyard and winery above Lake Okanagan in British Columbia, Canada. Gray Monk has just over half an acre (0.2ha) devoted to Gewürztraminer. The harshness of the Canadian winter is mitigated by the proximity of the lake and the angle of the hillside, which helps cold air drain from the vineyards.
Some of the best Grand Cru vineyards for Gewurztraminer are Altenberg and Kanzlerberg (in Bergheim), Eichberg (Eguisheim), Hengst (Wintzenheim), Kessler and Kitterlé (Guebwiller), Kirchberg (Barr), Mambourg (Sigolsheim), Schlossberg (Kientzheim), and Zinnkoepflé (Soultzmatt and Westhalten). Zind-Humbrecht adds that the soil type can affect the skin colour of Gewurztraminer as well as the taste: in his experience limestone soils give more orange skins with visible darker orange lines; acidic or gravelly soils give more purple colours.
Serious Gewürztraminer producers agree that there is a direct correlation between low yield and intense perfume. Many would put the crisis point for loss of quality at no higher than 40hl/ha. Alsace Grand Cru yields, now reduced to 55hl/ha from 60hl/ha, are still too high for good quality, and top growers take much less. Also, 55hl/ha is only the base yield (rendement de base) for Alsace Grand Cru: there is now a ‘buffer’ yield set at 66hl/ha, which has been introduced as a sop to the producers because an even bigger dodge has been removed. This was the system by which the growers could produce higher yields of one grape variety to compensate for low yields in another, providing the total did not exceed 60hl/ha.
Freshly ploughed soil ready for replanting in the Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergheim in Alsace. The mix of chalk and clay here is ideal for Gewurztraminer.
VINIFICATION
Olivier Zind-Humbrecht of Alsace describes his winemaking thus:
‘All the quality of Gewürztraminer is in the skin, so it pays to press the grapes slowly and gently, in order to extract the maximum of flavour. But lack of flavour is not the main worry, so one very rarely finds skin contact in Alsace. Gewürztraminer tends to ferment quickly to high alcohol levels, so it is important to keep a clear must, ideally from whole cluster pressing, to avoid the extraction of tannin from the stems, and too much sediment. I am not a big fan of cold fermentations, and I believe that any wine must reach a certain temperature in order to express complexity and not just banana or strawberry character. The richer and more complex a wine is, the more it can stand higher temperatures of up to 23º or 24ºC (73º or 75ºF). Poor grapes must ferment cooler in order to preserve the little flavour they have. But temperature control is very important, even if it is used for only a day or two. Gewürztraminer can ferment very quickly and reach temperatures of over 25ºC (75ºF) that could damage the wine.
‘Instead of lees stirring, I prefer to have fermentations that last three months or more, so that the lees are naturally in suspension in the wine, and stirring is not necessary. I prefer to have yeast alive in suspension in the wine, rather than dead yeasts that have to be stirred regularly.
‘The malolactic fermentation is usually prevented in Gewürztraminer, but I let the wine do what it wants to do. If the grapes are very ripe and concentrated, and if the malo happens only late and slowly, perhaps after Christmas, it often makes better wines. I have often had trophy-winning wines that had been through the malo’.
Many New World fermentations are at far cooler temperatures than those in Alsace. But not all: in New Zealand, Dr Neil McCallum, founder of Dry River liked to ferment his Gewürztraminer at 16–17ºC (61º–63ºF), and let it rise to 20ºC (68ºF) as the fermentation progressed. Says McCallum, ‘the Cool School [of fermentation temperatures] believe they retain more aromatics at low temperatures, and this therefore is in the wine’s interest. On the other hand most Europeans feel that fermentations at higher temperatures yield a wine with more body, while not sacrificing undue varietal flavours. Studies of about five years ago seem to indicate that the major amount of volatile losses are in the first two to three days of the fermentation and it therefore seems possible to embrace both schools to some extent. Natural ferments in Alsace would mostly start at low temperatures’.
Many of the rootstocks in Alsace encourage vigour, while in Germany high-yielding clones usually compromise quality. Excess vigour increases the risk of stem rot, to which the vine is very susceptible.
In New Zealand high-quality Gewürztraminer cannot be cropped over 2–3 tons per acre. One grower points out that if you are a commercial grower, you are probably going to be able to sell your Gewürztraminer grapes for NZ$1000–1200 per ton. It is obviously far more profitable to get paid $2000 per ton for similar yields of the Mendoza clone of Chardonnay – or even $1400 per ton for Sauvignon Blanc that you have cropped at 6 tons plus per acre. The tendency is therefore to try and crop Gewürztraminer at higher yields, to get a higher return. But then quality suffers, and you get into a vicious circle of overcropped, faintly perfumed wine in a market that does not know much about Gewürztraminer anyway. This, basically, is why plantings aren’t growing in New Zealand.
There is not a great deal of clonal variation reported in Gewürztraminer, though obviously there’s a vast amount within Savagnin as a whole. The colour of the grapes is not necessarily a result of clonal variation, although Alsace producer Olivier Zind-Humbrecht points out that modern, high-yielding clones tend to have darker, more purple colours, and softer, thinner skins. But he attributes the yellow or grey colour of some Gewürztraminer to different growing conditions and insufficient time to mature the colour of the skins. Potential alcohol levels can be over 13 or 14 per cent, but if a hot climate has encouraged too rapid a development of sugar, the grapes will not be physiologically ripe at that level and the seductive hothouse scent simply won’t have developed in the grapes.
However, Gewürztraminer ripens unevenly. It is not unusual to find berries with 15 per cent potential alcohol on the same cluster as green ones. This makes vinification difficult, even if the average ripeness looks satisfactory.
Gewürztraminer’s fame is firmly based on its performance in Alsace, the thin sliver of vineyard land in northeast France bordered by Germany and the river Rhine. Here, Gewürztraminer can – when the most talented growers and producers put their minds to it – produce one of the most astonishing scented wine styles in the world. Such intensity is rarely repeated elsewhere, but the vine does turn up all over the world with varying degrees of success.
The usual planting density here is 4400 to 4800 vines per hectare; the legal minimum is 4500. (The yields per vine in Alsace are high when compared with the 10,000 vines per hectare of the Côte d’Or.) Machine-harvesting is no longer allowed for Grand Cru wines. But overproduction is a problem in Alsace, even for the relatively low-yielding Gewurztraminer, and so measures have been introduced to try and curb this. Instead of leaving the overproduction on the vine, all vineyards must now be fully picked – the idea being that the thought of paying for all that unnecessary picking might encourage such growers to control their yields better. As always, though, bureaucracy is less inventive than quantity-minded growers, who have sometimes simply uprooted one row in three of their (non-Grand Cru) vineyards in order to allow space for mechanical harvesters and have higher yields per vine.
Acidification was used for the first time in the roasting vintage of 2003, but in 2011 the Grands Crus decided that neither chaptalization nor acidification should ever be used for their wines. They want to establish a proper difference of quality between themselves and standard Alsace – and not before time. There is also talk of a Premier Cru to sit between the two.
As well as intensely aromatic dry wines, Gewürztraminer makes some of Alsace’s finest sweet wines, but it is not in fact very susceptible to Botrytis cinerea. It is easy to ripen Gewürztraminer to vendange tardive richness – the grape can get to 16 per cent potential alcohol without a scrap of noble rot – but it has rather thick skins, which tend to protect it against botrytis.
Official figures of 902ha (2230 acres) (2013) do not distinguish between Savagnin Rose and Gewürztraminer – both appear as Roter Traminer. But most are probably accounted for by Gewürztraminer, particularly in the southerly regions of Pfalz, Rheinhessen and Baden. Flavours tend to be fruitier and more flowery than those of Alsace, seldom reaching such heady spiciness. In Baden, which is effectively a continuation of Alsace across the Rhine, there is more Traminer planted in the village of Durbach than in any other village in the whole of Germany; here it is known locally as Clevner.
The grape is likely to be called Traminer here, though its flavour can be as redolent of roses and spice as that of Alsace. Sunny Steiermark produces both lean, bone dry and barely aromatic versions and rather riper ones. Traminer makes powerful sweet wines in Burgenland and both dry and sweet ones in Vienna and Niederösterreich. For most of its growers, however, it is a minority grape.
Here it goes by the name of Traminer Aromatico, though the theory that it originated in the Alto Adige village of Tramin now seems a lot less likely. Savagnin was not planted in the Alto Adige and Austria until the 19th century. In spite of its Aromatico suffix, few wines have traditionally been very scented here, though they can be attractively elegant to compensate. The vine comes in red, white and pink versions. Local wisdom is that ‘roter’ or red Traminer is less aromatic but plumper.
Traminer or Gewürztraminer adopts various names in eastern Europe, including Tramini in Hungary, Traminec in Slovenia and Traminac in Croatia. These last two countries made fat, scented wines in the old ‘Yugoslavian’ days and still do. It is widely grown by Lake Balaton in Hungary, where soils are rich and volcanic; and it can give full, fiery, lychee- and mango-flavoured dry whites of considerable character. It is also grown in Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It can make some very attractive wines – light and elegant in Slovakia, surprisingly perfumed in the Czech Republic and substantial and scented in Romania and Moldova. But the serious socio-economic problems of most of these newly emergent democracies mean that the grape is regularly overcropped, leading to dull, dilute flavours, and is usually poorly vinified, leaving unattractive grubby odours where there should be seductive scent. And in countries where expertise and finance are in very short supply, all efforts are likely to be concentrated on wines that are easy-to-sell (Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Cabernet and Merlot) rather than unfashionable old Gewürz. There are small amounts planted in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Spain.
Domaine Weinbach
Weinbach makes exemplary Gewurztraminer from several different sites that are always among the best in Alsace.
Domaine Marcel Deiss
The Deiss style of Gewurztraminer is less flamboyant than Domaine Weinbach’s, but there is the same emphasis on the importance of terroir.
Andreas Laible
Probably the best producer in south Germany, Andreas Laible makes Gewürztraminer in a weighty Baden style but with more elegance than is customary.
The vineyards around the village of Tramin or Termeno in Italy’s Alto Adige, where the grape is thought to have originated. Termeno Aromatico is still one of the grape’s synonyms, but it has been edged out of most vineyards in its birthplace by other, higher-yielding varieties. What is left makes light but fragrant wine.
New Zealand’s cool but sunny climate seems to offer a perfect fit to Gewürztraminer. The drawback, however, is that the wine is difficult to sell, and so plantings fell from 182ha (450 acres) in 1991 to 85ha (210 acres) in 1998. However, figures are creeping up again, with 332ha of vines in 2013, some of them highly prized, small berry selections making sultry, scented wines.
Style-wise, it is the direct opposite of New Zealand’s star grape, Sauvignon Blanc; but whereas consumers seem happy to accept the high acidity of Sauvignon as intrinsic to the grape (albeit with a few grams of residual sugar to balance), they seem unwilling to embrace Gewürztraminer’s low acidity with the same enthusiasm. I suspect that people relate its soft, perfumed style to the cheap, off-dry Müller-Thurgau that was the mainstay of New Zealand’s early wine revival and which is now regarded with disdain. A pity. Acidi fication is quite common, and some producers put the wines through the malolactic fermentation, either wholly or partially (to produce wines of a different style). Most are dry or off-dry, and can be wonderfully scented. There are some late harvest wines, sometimes fermented in new oak.
Plantings here are falling and, as in New Zealand, the fundamental problem seems to be that while it is a relatively expensive grape to grow, with the usual problems of uneven ripening and low yields, you simply can’t get as much money for it as for the more popular, easier to grow varieties like Chardonnay. In the mid-1980s there were nearly 4000 acres/1620ha of Gewürztraminer, but by 2012 the figure had fallen to around 3000 acres/1214ha, most of which are in California. Here it suits the cooler areas of Monterey, Sonoma, Mendocino and Russian River Valley well, and styles are usually dry or off-dry, though Anderson Valley can produce some delightful dessert versions. It is found also in Oregon and Washington State, though many wines can be a little too dilute and a little too sweet.
In Australia it may be called Traminer or Gewürztraminer. In warmer, highly productive regions, it is often blended with Riesling to improve acidity. As Gewürztraminer, from cooler areas of Tasmania and Victoria and from South Australia’s Eden Valley, it can be thrillingly scented. Varietal wines range from dry through off-dry to late harvest.
Canada has the potential to make good Gewürztraminer, and Chile is making some very convincing examples, particularly from cool coastal and southerly vineyards. There are a few sweet versions from South Africa.
Te Whare Ra
Te Whare Ra in Marlborough, New Zealand makes some of the southern hemisphere’s most lush, scented Gewürztraminer using old-clone vines..
Cave Spring
The sunny but cool conditions at Cave Spring overlooking Lake Ontario are perfect for ripening and preserving the fragrance of Gewürztraminer.
Cono Sur
Cool Casablanca first showed promise with Gewürz in Chile, but coastal areas such as San Antonio and Bío-Bío in the south are proving to be even better.
Gewürztraminer seems to be able to offer exceptions to the rule that white wines need high acidity in order to age well. Admittedly, in those Alsace vintages where the sun shone too warmly and the wines verge on flabbiness, long aging is not recommended because the wine can quickly develop a bitter edge and a taste of breakfast marmalade. It does need relatively high acidity to make it past its third or fourth birthday.
In years when the balance is good, and providing that yields are kept down, a Grand Cru Gewürztraminer can happily age for 10 years. At the end of that period it has lost its exuberant perfume and become winier and more subtle – less like Gewürztraminer, perhaps more like Pinot Gris. But it gains enough in honey and complexity to make the loss of roses and lychees worthwhile.
Few New World examples are made to be aged, though the best will improve for a few years. Late-harvest wines can age, though are so delicious young that it is tempting to drink them then and there. The most concentrated Vendange Tardive (late-harvest) and Sélection de Grains Nobles (super-ripe, sweet, usually botrytized) wines from Alsace will live for 20 years or more – but again, they need respectable, if not high, levels of acidity to begin with.
Ripe, concentrated Gewürztraminer tastes like no other grape, though underripe or overcropped versions can resemble second-rate Muscat, and less aromatic versions, if underripe, can be no better than third-rate Riesling. But we are only interested in good Gewürztraminer here: low-cropped, cleanly made and with enough structure and acidity to give form and balance to all that headiness of perfume.
So what does this fabled perfume consist of? Lovely freshly plucked tea roses, the petals rubbed lasciviously between thumb and forefinger before you gorge yourself on their heady scent. And lychees too, fresh or tinned, it doesn’t matter, their flesh almost slithery as your tongue and teeth worry it free of the stone and your palate is amazed by its scented fruit. Face cream, too – particularly Nivea Crème – and a whole range of other scents – cinnamon or lilac, orange blossom and citrus peel, tea and bergamot and honeysuckle. And, intriguingly, really good Alsace examples also have a fierceness like really fresh ground black peppercorns. In simple wines these perfumes are muslin-light; in weightier ones they can become oily. If acidity is lacking they become flabby and slightly greasy, and one is reminded of butter melting in the sun and marmalade left uneaten at the side of the breakfast plate; unbalanced Gewürztraminer can be every bit as unappealing and unrefreshing as that.
Late-harvest Gewürztraminers have a combination of sweetness and heavy perfume that can make them tricky to match with food, though bottle age helps here, by toning down the perfume to more manageable levels. Botrytis, where it is part of the picture, adds complexity and richness at the same time as it reduces the roses and lychees element.
There doesn’t seem to me to be much point in making Gewürztraminer unless you set out to highlight its heady, sultry scent. Schoffit makes wines with sublime texture and perfume from the warm, sandy soils of the Harth vineyard near Colmar. Dry River makes a more powerful, exotic style, still perfumed but with denser fruit, from Martinborough in New Zealand’s North Island, an area better known for savoury Pinot Noir reds than scented whites.
Traditional Alsace food and wine pairings include rich, smooth duck or chicken liver pâté (with either dry or sweet examples), onion tart, smoked fish, roast goose, and pungent washed rind cheeses such as Munster. Or indeed, blue cheeses.
Young Gewürztraminer is an absolute delight to drink by itself, but it is also excellent with Indian and Chinese dishes, or fusion food redolent of ginger or other spices. Southeast Asian food, with its use of lemon grass, coriander and coconut, is often beautifully matched with Gewürztraminer. When the spicing is more subtle, mature Gewürz is an excellent partner for chicken.
Synonyms & local names
Also known as Traminer; as Rotclevner, Traminer Musqué, Traminer Parfumé and Traminer Aromatique in Alsace; as Roter Traminer, Clevner or Klavner in Germany and Austria; as Traminer or Traminer Aromatico, Traminer Rosé or Traminer Rosso in Italy; in Switzerland as Heida, Heiden or Païen; as Traminac (Croatia); Tramini (Hungary); Traminec (Slovenia); Drumin or Prync in the Czech and Slovak Republics; Rusa in Romania; Mala Dinka in Bulgaria; and Traminer in Russia, Moldova and Ukraine.
ALSACE Adam, Albrecht, Allimant-Laugner, Barmès-Buecher, Bechtold, Bernhard-Riebel, Beyer, Binner, P Blanck, Boesch, Bott-Geyl, Boxler, Burn, Deiss, Dirler-Cadé, Dopff & Irion, Dopff au Moulin, Pierre Frick, Hertz, Hugel, Hunawihr co-op, Josmeyer, Kientzler, Kreydenweiss, Kuentz-Bas, Seppi Landmann, J-L Mader, Albert Mann, F Meyer, Meyer-Fonné, Mittnacht-Klack, René Muré, Ostertag, Pfaffenheim co-op, Rieflé, Rolly Gassmann, Eric Rominger, Schaetzel, A Scherer, Schleret, Schlumberger, Schoffit, Gérard Schueller, Jean Sipp, Louis Sipp, Bruno Sorg, Pierre Sparr, Spielmann, Tempé, Trimbach, Turckheim coop, Weinbach, Zind-Humbrecht.
GERMANY Fitz-Ritter, A Laible, U Lützkendorf, Heinrich Männle, Rebholz, Wolff-Metternich, Klaus Zimmerling.
AUSTRIA Fritz Salomon.
ITALY/Alto Adige Abbazia di Novacella, Caldaro co-op, Colterenzio co-op, Cornaiano co-op, Franz Haas, Hofstätter, Prima & Nuova/Erste & Neue, San Michele Appiano co-op, Termeno co-op, Elena Walch; Trentino Cesconi, Pojer & Sandri.
SPAIN Enate, Raimat, Torres, Viñas del Vero.
USA/California Adler Fels, Bouchaine, Clendenen Family Vineyards, Thomas Fogarty, Gundlach-Bundschu, Handley, Lazy Creek, Navarro; Oregon Amity, Bridgeview, Eola Hills, Foris, Henry Estate, Tyee; Washington State Covey Run; New York Bedell.
CANADA Gray Monk, Konzelmann, Mission Hill, Sumac Ridge.
AUSTRALIA Delatite, Henschke, Knappstein, Moorilla Estate, Pirie, Seppelt, Skilloglee, Audrey Wilkinson.
NEW ZEALAND Brancott, Cloudy Bay, Dry River, Forrest, Framingham, Hunters, Lawson’s Dry Hills, Lincoln, Millton, Rippon, Saint Clair, Seifried, Spy Valley, Stonecroft, Te Whare Ra.
CHILE Concha y Toro, Viña Casablanca.
SOUTH AFRICA Delheim, Neethlingshof, Simonsig Estate, Zevenwacht.
Ten Alsace dry or off-dry wines
Léon Beyer Cuvée des Comtes d’Eguisheim
Paul Blanck Furstentum Vieilles Vignes
Ernest Burn Cuvée de la Chapelle
Marc Kreydenweiss Kritt
Meyer-Fonné Wineck-Schlossberg
Mittnacht-Klack Schoenenbourg
Schaetzel Kaefferkopf Cuvée Catherine
Domaines Schlumberger Cuvée Christine
Trimbach Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre
Turckheim co-op Brand
Deiss Altenberg
Dirler-Cadé Spiegel
Hugel
Kuentz-Bas Pfersigberg Cuvée Jeremy
Albert Mann Furstentum
René Muré Vorbourg Clos St-Landelin
Schoffit Clos St-Théobald Rangen
Bruno Sorg
Weinbach Cuvée d’Or Quintessence
Zind-Humbrecht Rangen
Cesconi Trentino Traminer Aromatico
Hofstätter Alto Adige Gewürztraminer Kolbenhof
Caldaro co-op Alto Adige Gewürztraminer Campaner
San Michele Appiano co-op Alto Adige Gewürztraminer Sanct Valentin
Elena Walch Alto Adige Gewürztraminer Kastelaz
Concha y Toro Winemakers Lot Gewürztraminer (Chile)
Delatite Dead Man’s Hill Gewürztraminer (Australia)
Eola Hills Gewürztraminer Vin d’Epice (Oregon)
Foris Rogue Valley Gewürztraminer (Oregon)
Henschke Joseph Hill Gewürztraminer (Australia)
Lawson's Dry Hills Gewürztraminer (New Zealand)
Mission Hill Gewürztraminer Icewine (Canada)
Pirie Gewürztraminer (Australia)
Stonecroft Gewürztraminer (New Zealand)
Te Whare Ra Gewürztraminer (New Zealand)
Gewürztraminer berries may be more orange, more purple or more red than these, depending on the growing conditions. The wine generally has a deep golden colour, though Traminers in the northern Italian mould may be paler.
Most simple Gewürztraminer follows the New Zealand pattern: drink the wines early. Only top Alsace examples age successfully in bottle.
2011 was a good, early vintage in Alsace, with fragrant and well-balanced wines in most varieties. Top Gewurztraminers were attractively scented.
2010 was an exceptional year for rich Gewürtztraminer. The top Vendange Tardive wines have tremendous richness and scent, but balancing acidity.
Most New Zealand Gewürztraminers are best drunk without further bottle age. The 2014 harvest was sunny and of good, scented quality.
Mid- to late-ripening Sardinian black grape, DOC in Cagliari. It can be dry, sweet or fortified, or even dried for a local passito. Tannins are firm, and the fruit is attractively cherry-scented, but acidity tends to be lowish. The Girò Blanc grown on Mallorca, and atracting some attention there for its pineapple and mango fruit, good quality and power, is not related.
This grape used to be called Prosecco, but its name was changed by the Prosecco producers’ Consorzio so that they can legally protect the Prosecco name from being used elsewhere in the world. Prosecco’s most familiar incarnation is as a dry or off-dry sparkling wine with good acidity and a lightly creamy flavour. It is a favourite in nearby Venice and the vicinity, and is the proper wine to use in a Bellini, the peach juice and sparkling wine cocktail served in Harry’s Bar in Venice (and, inevitably, elsewhere). It is not high in alcohol or body, and is fresh and rather neutral rather than particularly aromatic – the ideal base for sparkling wine, in other words. There are occasional sweet versions, quite a lot of frizzante, or semi-sparkling, and a little still wine.
Virtually all Prosecco is grown in the Valdobbiadene and Conegliano zones, north of Venice, or in Colli Euganei near Padua. It ripens late, and it was this late ripening that originally gave rise to the spumante tradition: the fermentation tended to stop in the autumn, leaving some carbon dioxide and perhaps some residual sugar in the wine, which would begin to ferment again in the spring – if it hadn’t all been drunk by then. Most of the wine today is made by the Charmat method. Best producers: (Italy) Adami, Bernardi, Bisol, Bortolin, Carpenè Malvolti, Col Vetoraz, Le Colture, Nino Franco, Ruggeri & C, Tanorè.
This rich, aromatic, high-quality Spanish grape is the same as Portugal’s Gouveio, alias Verdelho do Dão, but is different to the true Verdelho grown on Madeira (see here). As Godello it is the best white grape in Valdeorras, though still manages to account for only a tiny per cent of the vineyard: Palomino and Valenciana, or Doña Blanca, far outdo it in terms of area planted. It also appears in other DOs of the far northwest, including Ribeira Sacra, Ribeiro, Monterrei and Bierzo.
Rafael Palacio
Godello is quite possibly the most scented of the newly fashionable white varieties in Spain's far north-west. Almost extinct in the 1970s, it is now flourishing in Valdeorras.
It must surely be in the running for the title of Spain’s most interesting white grape; and Spain is now producing such excellent white wines that that is not a negligible title. It shares the softly aromatic apricot character of Albariño but has a silkier texture and a lusher fruit, rather like good Viognier. It seems to be native to the gorges of the Sil Valley, but nearly became extinct in the 1970s, and only determined efforts by the Consejo Regulador of Valdeorras saved it.
Godello is delicious as a varietal wine, but also blends well with other grapes, including Albariño, Treixadura and Doña Blanca. In Portugal, where it is called Gouveio, it's found mostly in the Douro and Dão regions, and in the former is mostly blended into quite rich, flavoursome table wine. Best producers: (Spain) Casal, Godeval, Guitian, Jesús Nazareno co-op, Santa Maria dos Remedios co-op, Señorío, La Tapada, Valderroa.
A 20th-century cross used for making sweet wines in Austria. It makes quite powerful, straightforward wines.
A strain of Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains (see here) grown in Italy’s Alto Adige is known as Goldmuskateller or Moscato Giallo. Best producers: (Italy) Lageder, Thurnhof, Tiefenbrunner.
Ancient and almost extinct variety which is a parent of at least 81 western European vines. Chardonnay is Gouais Blanc x Pinot, as are Gamay and Aligoté; Riesling is the offspring of Gouais Blanc; so is Furmint, so is Blaufränkisch. Its aliases include Heunisch in Germany; it was, in its day, grown extremely widely. It wasn’t, however, terribly good at making wine, merely at cross-breeding, with any other vine that came near, and by 1598 orders were being made to uproot it. By the 20th century, it was almost extinct in France. If you want to find one you might, if you look hard, spot it in northern Piedmont, where it is sometimes known as Liseiret. Georg Breuer has planted a bit of Heunisch in the Rheingau, and there’s some planted in Switzerland under the name of Gwäss. In Australia, Chambers of Rutherglen has some. However, no one reports queues of enthusiastic ampelographers desperate to try the wine.
Gouveio is one of the many white varieties used to make dry white wines in Portugal’s Douro Valley and it is also one parent of more than 80 varieties spread across Western and Central Europe. There seem to be two Gouveios, and one is the same as Spain’s Godello. Best producers: (Portugal) Churchill, Martinez, Niepoort, Sogrape.
A spicy, aromatic, intensely flavoured grape that is challenging Tempranillo as the most interesting red vine in Rioja, but which is unfortunately far more capricious to grow than the region’s other vines. However, that doesn’t stop the good guys from trying.
The success of a pioneering handful of varietal examples has encouraged plantings there, and just 15 per cent in a blend will add perfume and acidity. It is not unlike Petit Verdot in structure and flavour profile, with high acidity. It is less tannic than Tempranillo and tends to oxidize easily: it is not designed for long aging. It is late budding, susceptible to downy mildew and low yielding – the last two being characteristics not likely to endear the vine to the average grower. It prefers cool, clay-chalk soils and mild, damp climates; it dislikes drought and strong summer heat, and it is hardly found outside Rioja.
As Morrastel it is found rarely in the south of France, but in Spain the name of Morrastel is a synonym for the very different Monastrell, or Mourvèdre (see here). What is called Morrastel in North Africa can be either grape. Portugal’s Tinta Miúda, which is found in the Ribatejo and in Estremadura, is the same grape as Graciano, as is southern Spain’s Tintilla de Rota. There is also a bit of Graciano in California, which is gaining attention.
The most encouraging signs are coming from Australia, where it shows clear affinity for the conditions and is producing award-winning reds. Best producers: (Australia) Brown Brothers, Rosemount; (Spain) Artadi, Campillo, Contino, CVNE, Viña Ijalba, La Rioja Alta, Dominio de Valdepusa.
Greco Bianco growing near the town of Bianco in Calabria, Italy for (yes) Greco di Bianco – on, as it happens, very ‘bianco’ soil. Greco Bianco is mainly used for sweet wine and isn't the same as simple Greco, which is used to make some of Campania's best dry whites, such as Greco di Tufo.
The old Bordeaux name for Carmenère (see here), a grape almost extinct there but flourishing in Chile. Some wineries in Chile opted to call their Carmenère by this name but since 2001 its use has been banned under EU legislation.
Some authorities maintain that this Romanian vine is the same as Furmint (see here), but I don’t quite see why. Furmint is famously acid, Grasa is famously fat and soft. But the leaves are the same, and Grasa does, like Furmint, hold on to a green tint as it ages. Ah. They have some Grasa in Tokaj, where it’s known as Kövérszölö and makes sweet wine, but is quite different to the Furmint. Does that settle it? Back to Romania. It is concentrated in the Cotnari region, where it makes rich, long-lasting, sweet, nobly rotten wines, often given a bit of extra zest by an admixture of Tǎmaîoasǎ Româneascǎ. Best producer: (Romania) Cotnari Cellars.
Welschriesling (see here) is called by this name in Croatia, where it is the most widely planted variety and can produce excellent, broad, honeyed wines.
German synonym for Ruländer (see here), or Pinot Gris (see here). Best producers: (Germany) Bercher, Schlossgut Diel, Drautz-Able, Dr Heger, Müller-Catoir, Salwey.
Sicilian name for Garganega, the mainstay of good Soave in Veneto. No one’s quite sure how it got down to Sicily, but plantings are on the increase, and the wine has very good flavour, with some grassy pungency. Best producer: (Italy) Planeta.
An interesting central Italian grape that adds structure, richness and a pleasing nuttiness and leafiness to many Umbrian whites. Good Orvieto owes a lot to Grechetto; so do Antinori’s Torgiano and Cervaro whites. It is generally blended: with Chardonnay in Cervaro, with Trebbiano, Malvasia and Verdello in others. It is low yielding but sufficiently disease-resistant to compensate. It makes good Vin Santo. Grechetto di Todi is a separate variety and a synonym for Pignoletto. Best producers: (Italy) Antonelli, Avignonesi, Barberani-Vallesanta, Arnaldo Caprai, Falesco, Palazzone, Castello della Sala.
The name Greco has been given to a multitude of Italian grapes, and DNA profiling is only now sorting them out. Any link with Greece, ancient or modern, seems to be fallacious: they seem to have no genetic relationship with any known Greek vine, which they would do if they had originated there. The Greek implication of the name is more likely to mean that they made Greek-style wines, i.e. sweet or sweetish.
Plain Greco is the same vine as Greco di Tufo, Asprinio and various other Grecos; Greco Bianco, from Calabria, makes sweet wines and is a different vine; Greco Bianco di Gerace is the same as Malvasia di Lipari and Greco Bianco di Novara is the same as Erbaluce.
Greco Nero, likewise, covers umpeteen varieties, mostly in Calabria.
So: Greco. The flavour is slightly peachy and leafy, fresh and brisk, full-bodied and sometimes herbal. Examples vary in their degree of aroma, which could be winemaking or vineyard: higher altitudes tend to favour aroma. But it’s a good grape, and one we’re seeing more of now that Italians are getting keener on aromatic wines.
A white mutation of Grenache Noir (see Garnacha). Intrinsically a rather dull grape which, like its black counterpart, Grenache Noir, oxidizes easily and is rather low in acidity. However, it contributes a certain softness and fleshiness to a blend and is widely planted across the south of France. It features heavily in much white Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Côtes du Rhône and to a limited extent (10 per cent, to be precise) in some Côtes du Rhône-Villages. It also appears in some Rivesaltes Vin Doux Naturel from Roussillon. It is also now being used as a varietal, and modern winemaking wizardry can work wonders in turning it into very attractive and occasionally thrilling wine. Low temperature fermentation can produce a fresh, dill-scented wine to drink very young. Alternatively, low yields, maceration on the skins, oak barrel aging and/or fermentation, lees aging and perhaps a dash of something more aromatic like Muscat or Viognier, can give it more memorable quantities of flavour and a broad, rich, satisfying texture.
Bonny Doon
Le Cigare Blanc is a Grenache–Roussanne blend from the wonderfully named Beeswax Vineyard in Monterey County, California. Made as a homage to white Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the wine manages to be citrussy, rich and chewy.
As Garnacha Blanca (see here) it is found in north and northeast Spain, where, like Garnacha Tinta, it originated. South Africa and California have a little. Best producers: (France) Beaucastel, Caraguilhes, Clavel, Font de Michelle, la Gardine, Mont-Redon, la Nerthe, Rayas.
See Garnacha here.
A pale but not hugely interesting red grape that originated in Piedmont in north-west Italy and has never strayed; and the wine itself is made and mainly drunk locally.
The acidity and tannin are high, and the flavour varies between fresh leafiness and herbal rasp, and tired vegetable stock, according, apparently, to the luck of the draw. There is great clonal variation, which may account for some of the differences in style. The vine also tends to reflect its soil type quite strongly. At its best it is quite attractive though curious – not exactly a wine you’d want every day. It is best drunk young. There are three DOCs: d’Asti, del Monferrato Casalese and Piemonte. For some reason the Heitz vineyard in California’s Napa Valley grows a bit – don’t ask me why. Maybe it’s to remind them how good their Cabernet is. Best producers: (Italy) G Accornero & Figli, Braida, Bricco Mondalino, Dante Rivetti, Cantine Sant’ Agata, Vinchio e Veglio Serra co-op.
One of the better grapes for Marsala, Sicily’s fortified wine, Grillo reaches high levels of potential alcohol – always a plus point for makers of fortified wine, because it saves on (expensive) brandy. Plantings have begun to rise again as more Grillo is used for dry whites. It’s a potentially interesting grape, though, with lemony fruit, robust weight and structure. Best producers: (Italy) De Bartoli, Florio, Pellegrino.
Tasca d'Almerita
Grillo was for a long time simply a source of Marsala’s base wine, but the grape variety shows real character as a lemony table wine to be drunk young.
Very good Croatian white grape that seems to be a parent or offspring of Zinfandel, alias Primitivo, alias Tribidrag. It’s one of a number of closely related vines from the same area. Its wine are rich and structured with good acidity. Best producers: Bartul Batistíc, Stipan Cebalo, Milano.
The most interesting thing about Grolleau or Groslot is that, according to Galet, its name is derived from the old French word grolle or grole, meaning ‘crow’; the comparison is with the deep black of Grolleau’s berries. It is curious but appropriate that while the more aristocratic Merlot grape is said to be named after the melodious blackbird, or merle; poor old plebeian Grolleau gets the crow. Grolleau, perhaps depressed by all this, is on the decline in its Loire homeland. It is allowed only into rosé wines, not red, and plays a part in Anjou, Saumur and Touraine Rosé. Its wines are light, low in alcohol, a bit earthy and high in acidity. Grolleau Gris is a pink-berried version. Best producers: (France) Bouvet-Ladubay, Pierre-Bise, Richou.
An intensely flavoured grape of southwest France, now beginning to be revived as winemakers learn how to get the best from it. It is found in Béarn, Jurançon and Gascony, where it is considered a cépage améliorateur for its high acidity and floral, spicy, apricot-quince fruit. It is probably the offspring of Petit Manseng (see here).
It is quite a good yielder, and gives up to 70 or 80 hl/ha seemingly without any adverse effect on quality. What problems it does have are in the winery. It has deep, golden-coloured grapes, and the skins have high levels of tannins, colour and polyphenols. If the grapes are treated at all roughly in the winery the results will be coarse: it must be pressed extremely delicately, and carefully settled so that only clean juice goes to the fermentation vats.
It can produce interesting, though different results at a wide spectrum of ripeness. If picked at 11.5–12 per cent potential alcohol, the wine will be fresh, flowery and sharp. The grapes are also easier to work with at this level. But to get the full potential out of the grape it is necessary to pick at 12.5–13.5 per cent potential alcohol. Then the wines are much more powerful, but still with high acidity, and still dry.
It can also make very good sweet wines, and recent experiments with new oak have shown wines full of personality not unlike oaked Sémillon, much valued locally for drinking with foie gras. These wines may be from late-harvest or noble-rotted grapes. It strongly reflects its terroir, giving fresh wines on chalky clay, richer, fatter ones on sandy clay, and light, delicate ones on sand. Best producers: (France) Aydie, Brana, Cauhapé, Clos Lapeyre, Clos Uroulat, Souch.
A versatile Austrian grape that, at its best, is now in the forefront of quality and, given its long Germanic name, has become surprisingly fashionable in restaurants and bars, with its name often shortened to Grüner, or simply GV. At its simplest, it forms Austria’s everyday jug wine, is fresh and peppery, and best drunk within months of the vintage. The best growers in the Wachau and Kamptal regions of Niederösterreich produce much more structured, ripe wines, however, which bring out the lentil, celery and white pepper aroma of the grape, with sometimes a touch of citrus and often honeyed weight, sometimes with a little too much alcohol for balance. It is never very aromatic, but can age well in bottle, becoming more honeyed after a few years and yet staying peppery. It is site-sensitive and favours loess soil but is planted pretty well anywhere. Yields are high, up to 100hl/ha for everyday wine.
It was the only grape permitted for the first DAC (Districtus Austriae Controllatus) wine, from Weinviertel. This premium designation only applies to a particular style: with no discernible wood on the palate, and with a light yellow or greenish-yellow colour, and delicate, peppery fruit.
Grüner Veltliner is also successful in the Czech Republic and Hungary. Its names here are Veltlin Zelene or Veltlinkske Zelené, and Zöldveltelini, respectively. Austria also has three other Veltliner vines: Grauer Veltliner is a colour mutation of Grüner Veltliner, Brauner Roter and Frühroter Veltliner are unrelated. All three are dark-skinned and while the first two are planted only in very small quantities, Frühroter Veltliner (red-skinned rather than black) is slightly more widely planted, mostly in the Weinviertel region. It has lower acidity than Grüner Veltliner. Its trendiness and easy drinkability have encouraged other countries to have a go, led by New Zealand, but with interesting examples from Australia, California and Oregon. Best producers: (Austria) Bründlmayer, Fred Loimer, Franz Hirtzberger, Josef Jamek, Emmerich Knoll, Lenz Moser, Familie Nigl, Nikolaihof, Willi Opitz, Franz Xaver Pichler, Prager, Dr Unger, Domäne Wachau.
Gutedel, or Chasselas, as it is better known, is far less famous than its offspring: by virtue of an unscripted encounter with Riesling it is a parent of Müller-Thurgau. ‘Unscripted’ because until recently the parents of Müller-Thurgau were believed to be Riesling and Silvaner, which is presumably what Dr Müller of Thurgau himself thought. DNA fingerprinting has demonstrated the truth: clearly there is no limit to what vines will get up to, left to themselves. Gutedel is less important in Germany than Chasselas is in Switzerland (see here). It is found almost entirely in the Markgräferland region of Baden, where it makes typically neutral, slightly earthy wine. There is also a dark-berried version, Roter Gutedel. Best producers: (Germany) Blankenhorn, Dörflinger, Pfaffenweiler co-op, Schneider.
Muscat of Alexandria is known by this name in South Africa. See here.
Tannat (see here) may be called by this name in Uruguay, especially when referring to Tannat descended from original 19th-century plantings rather than new clones from France.
It doesn’t look sunny – and it isn’t. These are the vineyards around Bilbao on the rainy, windy north coast of Spain, looking out onto the Bay of Biscay. I’ve been visiting the area since I was a student and I reckon I’ve seen about one day of sunshine – but that’s why the local Hondarrabi grape makes such sharp wine – which just happens to go brilliantly with the local seafood.
Tokaj’s second main grape variety is found in other parts of Hungary as well, but so far few examples have the delicate pollen scent and elderflower fruit which the grape can boast when made as a dry wine. In Tokaj its sweet wines are typically smoky and spicy, robust and intense, and fat sometimes to the point of being slightly oily. Hárslevelü is also found in Slovakia and in South Africa. Best producers: (Hungary) Château Megyer, Château Pajzos, Disznókö, Oremus, Royal Tokaji Wine Co.
Savagnin/Traminer (see here) takes this name in Switzerland.
A Swiss rarity, rescued from extinction in the 1970s by Josef-Marie Chanton, who is still almost the only grower. The wine is crisp, lemon-zesty and attractive.
The dark-skinned grape of Spain’s Basque country, where it features in the Chacolí de Guetaria and Chacolí de Vizcaya DOs (or Getariako Txakolina and Bizkaiko Txacolina if Basque is your preferred tongue). Hondarrabi Beltza’s wines are fresh, acidic, with some leafy black fruit, and best drunk young. The vine is believed to have originated in the Pamplona Valley. Best producer: (Spain) Txomin Etxaniz.
No one quite seems to know precisely what is and isn’t Hondarrabi – this is hardly surprising given the scattered and rudimentary nature of most vineyards in Spain’s Basque country. There are two Pyrenean varieties – Crouchen and Courbu – and an American hybrid called Noah. These all also travel under the Hondarrabi title in the Basque – though how anyone could think the powerfully scented Noah can have anything in common with the neutral Crouchen is beyond me. Makes you wonder whether Hondarrabi Zuri actually exists at all. Even so, it/they dominate(s) the Basque vineyards of Chacolí de Guetaria /Getariako Txakolina and Chacolí de Vizcaya/Bizkaiako Txacolina. The former is slightly fuller and richer, but being light, lemony and acidic both wines are ideal for the local seafood. Drink young.
While the wines are prized locally they are seldom seen outside the region. The vines are trained on a modified version of pergolas; yields average less than the legal maximum of 93.6hl/ha, and generally work out at around 60hl/ha. The wines generally contain an admixture of Folle Blanche and perhaps a little Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling. Best producers: (Spain) Eizaguirre, Txomin Etxaniz, Virgen de l’Orea.
One of the less aromatic Swiss varieties. The wine does, however, have some attractive plumpness and freshness and can age interestingly. It has been cultivated in the Valais region since at least the 12th century.
See Cornalin here.
Perfumed German crossing, propagated in 1927, which produces grapes with high sugar levels and plenty of flavour, but little elegance. It is found in declining though still substantial quantities in the Pfalz and Rheinhessen. It can produce enormous crops, and if it does the flavour will be accordingly diluted. In England it can produce delightful grape juice and elderflower-scented, relatively dry wines but is declining. Best producers: (Germany) Kurt Darting, Geil, Koehler-Ruprecht, Johann Ruck, Schales; (England) Biddenden.
A good-quality, low-yielding grape found in Sicily, where it is part of the blend, along with Catarratto and perhaps Trebbiano, in many of the island’s white wines. Its wine is fresh and rather racy at its best. It is part of the Marsala blend (at least, the genuine Marsala blend as understood by leading producer De Bartoli), along with Grillo, and the grapes may be partially dried and made into sweet wine. It is also planted in Tuscany, and is sometimes known as Ansonica or Anzonica. Best producers: (Italy) Colosi, De Bartoli, Florio, Pellegrino, Duca di Salaparuta, Tasca d’Almerita.
There’s nothing very complex about this eastern European crossing of Pozsonyi with Pearl of Csaba – and if its parents sound unfamiliar it is because it was bred as a table grape. It has a pleasant, rather Muscatty perfume, and lowish acidity. It is found in Slovakia and Hungary, where it is called Irsai Olivér. If you like grapy dry whites, these are never expensive. Best producers: (Hungary) Balatonboglar Winery; (Slovakia) Nitra Winery.
Jacquère is found in the French region of Savoie, where it produces light, mountain-fresh white wines for drinking young. Best producers: (France) Blard et Fils, Pierre Boniface, Charles Gonnet, Philippe Monin, Jean-Claude Perret.
Early-ripening, easy-to-grow variety that is the second most planted grape, after Baga, in Portugal’s Dão region and is, in fact, Mencia from Spain’s northwest. Its colour is good and it can have a delicious raspberry/loganberry fruit, but its acidity and tannin are low, so it is usually blended with other varieties, often the more powerful Touriga Nacional, or Alfrocheiro Preto. Best producers: (Portugal) Bacalhõa, Quinta das Maias, Quinta dos Roques, Sogrape.
Another name for Castelão (see here) or Periquita (see here). Best producers: (Portugal) Horta de Nazaré, Quinta de Lagoalva de Cima, Herederos de Dom Luís de Margaride.
Swiss name for Silvaner (see here) from the Valais region, where it is sometimes planted in the best sites. The wines can be rather plump and very tasty. Best producers: (Switzerland) Caves Imesch, du Mont d’Or.
The name, or one of the names, given to Riesling in California (see here). Best producers: (USA) Callaghan Vineyards, Chateau St Jean, Gainey.
This Hungarian vine is on the decline partly because it is late ripening and prone to grey rot, and partly because the export market has turned so decisively against what was its main wine, Bull’s Blood from Eger. It can make rather good weighty, lush red but it needs careful cultivation for this, and its natural vigour needs to be kept in check. If yields are too high, which they almost always are, and if it is picked before it is fully ripe, which it almost always is, it makes dull, dilute wine. It is still grown in Hungary, especially on the Great Plain and in Szekszárd, but plantings are smaller than they were.
It is found in small quantities in Austria’s Neusiedlersee, in Romania (as Cadarca) and in Vojvodina. It plays a bigger part in Bulgaria, where it is called Gamza and is found in the northwest. There is also a white grape called Izsáki, or White Kadarka, which is grown on Hungary’s Great Plain too, but it is unrelated. Best producers: (Hungary) Hungarovin; (Bulgaria) Domaine Boyar.
Turkish grape widely grown in Central Anatolia. Phylloxera nearly destroyed it, but it was propagated again in the 1970s and 1980s to make soft, fresh reds with agreeable cherry and red-fruit flavours, best drunk young. Best producers: Pamukkale, Kavaklidere.
The Hungarian name for Austria’s Blaufränkisch (see here). It produces reasonable quality in Hungary. Best producers: (Hungary) Hungarovin, Akos Kamocsay.
Potentially aromatic and high-quality Hungarian grape, now hardly grown. At its best in Badacsony on the shores of Lake Balaton where the wines were traditionally fiery and golden, high in acid but waxy and scented.
Old Hungarian name for Blauer Portugieser (see here), no longer used.
A reasonably good-quality vine bred in Germany in 1969. It is one of the better modern crossings (Trollinger x Riesling), which perhaps is not saying a great deal, and German growers have loved it from the start for its combination of high sugar levels and high yields. From the consumer’s point of view, the flavour is not bad, being less vulgarly perfumed than most crossings and rather nearer to Riesling in its balance and character. But it does not hold a candle to good Riesling. It is concentrated in the Pfalz and Rheinhessen and at its best is worth bottling as a varietal. There are also plantings in Württemberg, Franken, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer and Saale-Unstrut. It has spread around the globe a bit. Italy, Switzerland, Canada and Japan have some, and England has a bit, too. Best producers: (Germany) Jürgen Ellwanger, W G Flein, Geil, Karl Haidle, Jan Ulrich.
Hungarian white grape making attractively aromatic, grapy, light wines.
Georgian white variety often blended with Rkatsiteli (see here). It’s a difficult grape to grow but rewards with intense aromas of baked apples. If fermented in Georgia’s traditional qvevri, it will be richer, broader but less fresh. If it survives the local erratic cellar hygiene, it can be very good.
A name applied in Alsace to several grape varieties, among them the Pinot family and Chardonnay; the same usage is common in German-speaking regions. It can be spelt Clevner. It is not the same as Alsace’s Klevener de Heiligenstein, which is Savagnin Rose (see Gewürztraminer here). Best producers: (France) Marc Kreydenweiss; (Germany) Andreas Laible.
Japanese Vitis vinifera grape. It’s not clear whether it was introduced or bred there. It is much promoted now in export markets and has acquired a following, though possibly mostly for its novelty value: in style it is quite fresh, light, neutral and unmemorable.
Cretan variety giving soft, spicy, broad wines and best blended with something with a bit more backbone. Best producers: (Greece) Archanes co-op, Peza co-op, Miliarakis Bros.
Wonderful wild strawberry and rose-scented red grape saved from extinction in the 1980s, and DOC in Morro d’Alba in central Italy. The wines are dry, with high acidity, though less high than they were a few years ago. A keen local market means that prices are high. The locals drink it as an apéritif, or with salami.
Interesting, mouthfilling Italian variety found in Trentino-Alto Adige. It has a flavour of sour plums with a touch of grass and bitter cherries, some black chocolate richness and a deep, dark colour, but it is not very tannic, and so it’s criticized for not being ageworthy.
Well, first, how long do you want it to age? Its low tannin gives it that rare combination of good chewy dark fruit and easy drinkability. And second, I’ve seen deep, satisfying chocolate and plum 10-year-old examples that had lost nothing and gained quite a bit by the sojourn in bottle. Some producers give the wine more substance by aging it in barrique, but it doesn’t really need it. Without some added oak the style of Lagrein is very much in the mould of other northeastern Italian reds, such as Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, Marzemino and Teroldego (it is actually related to these last two). If you like them, you’ll have a soft spot for Lagrein, too.
Lagrein Dunkel or Scuro is the name of the red wine; Kretzer or Rosato is pink, though usually pretty dark pink. Lagrein di Gries or Grieser comes from just outside Bolzano in Alto Adige. So far Australia and California have taken more interest than New Zealand, where it might also have potential. Best producers: (Italy) Viticoltori Alto Adige co-op, Barone de Cles, Colterenzio co-op, Muri Gries, Gries co-op, Hofstätter, Lageder, Josephus Mayr, Niedermayr, Hans Rottensteiner, Santa Maddalena co-op, Thurnhof, Tiefenbrunner, Peter Zemmer.
Not the same as Airén, though often confused with it. Lairén is to be found in Andalucia, southern Spain; Airén is the white grape of La Mancha. Lairén is also known as Malvar and makes an interesting contribution to Vinos de Madrid. Its wines are quite high in alcohol, reasonably high in acidity and can be good in late-harvest versions.
The Italian grape and the wine have the same name, and in addition the name covers a large number of vines, some of which may have their names specified on the label for DOC wines. But as well as differences between different Lambrusco vines, there are also differences between different Lambrusco wines. The main division is between ‘proper’ Lambrusco which is quite a challenging. bracing mouthful – fairly dry, slightly sweet-sour, frothy, strawberry-fruited and with a bitter twist on the finish, low in tannin and ideal for drinking with the fatty, pork-based diet of the Modena region in Emilia-Romagna – and industrial Lambrusco, sold in screwcapped bottles, usually sweetened, and nothing like the refreshing character of real Lambrusco.
Proper Lambrusco comes in cork-stoppered bottles, and is DOC. It is also more expensive and more difficult to find outside the region, and especially outside Italy: sweetened Lambrusco was, from the late 1970s, exported to the USA in huge quantities. Pink, white and low-alcohol versions were also invented. There is no white Lambrusco grape: Lambrusco Bianco is made by vinifying the grapes without the skins.
On to the vines. They seem to be native to the region and indeed may have evolved naturally from wine vines in Emilia Romagna and Piedmont. In any case, they’ve been there long enough to develop a lot of clonal variation. The best subvarieties (and there are many) are: Lambrusco Marani, which gives good colour; Grasparossa, which is found around the village of Castelvetro, south of Modena; Salamino (its clusters are supposed to resemble the shape of salami sausages), which is found at Santa Croce, east of Sorbara; and the most highly prized, Sorbara, from the village of that name – but there are lots more.
Lambrusco vines are trained high, on pergolas, for Lambrusco wine. In times past they used to be trained up tree trunks: even today, poplars with vines climbing up them are a familiar sight in Italy.
There are four DOCs which, needless to say, do not coincide precisely with the sub-varieties. DOC Lambrusco di Sorbara must be made from Sorbara and Salamino grapes; DOC Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro must be 85 per cent Grasparossa; DOC Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce must be 90 per cent Salamino; and DOC Lambrusco Reggiano is made from a blend of Salamino with the lesser Marani, plus the even lesser Maestri and Montericco. (Maestri gives fleshy, bubblegum wine, and is taking over from the higher-acid Marani.) DOC Lambrusco Reggiano is often made amabile, or lightly sweet, this sweetness coming from up to 15 per cent of a concentrated grape must coming from a dark variety called Ancellotta. There is a lot of Ancellotta in the region; more, in fact, than of any individual strain of Lambrusco. Lambrusco Reggiano, the most produced wine, is seldom the most interesting of the DOCs. Best producers: (Italy) Casimiro Barbieri, Francesco Bellei, Casali, Cavicchioli, Moro Rinaldo Rinaldini, Vittorio Graziano.
The name under which Welschriesling (see here) is frequently encountered in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. The branded version exported for many years by the state-run winemaking operation gave the grape a bad name; undeservedly so, since the style of that wine owed more to poor equipment, bad handling and the desire to sell the wine at the lowest possible price than it did to the grape’s potential. Best producers: (Slovenia) Slovenjvino, Stanko Curin.
Workhorse white grape, normally found in the northeast of Hungary (the Eger region, particularly), producing mild, soft wines of no great excitement. It used to be linked with Romania’s rather better Fetească Albă (see here). Some growers are taking it more seriously than of yore. Best producer: (Hungary) Hungarovin.
Kiona
Kiona makes one of the few Washington State Lembergers. The grape is well suited to the local dry, sunny conditions and produces a bright blackberry and pepper-flavoured wine on Red Mountain, which is generally a citadel of Cabernet power.
Blaufränkisch (see here) is known by this name in Germany, New York and in Washington State. Limberger is an alternative German name but less common. In Germany it is found in Württemberg, where it produces pale-coloured wines that are light but have decent acidity. It is often blended with Trollinger (see here). Best producers: (Germany) Graf Adelmann, Drautz-Able, Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen; (USA) Covey Run, Hogue Cellars, Kiona.
The name of this grape, native to southwest France, means ‘far from sight’ – it is a corruption of ‘Loin de l’oeil’. A curious name for a vine, you might think: the clusters have long stalks, and so are a long way (well, relatively) from the eye, or bud, from which they sprang.
It’s true that plantings have declined, but there is a minimum (15 per cent) of Len de l’El required in the blend for white Gaillac (although Sauvignon Blanc is allowed as an alternative), so it is to be hoped that this characterful grape will not disappear completely from view. It is low in acidity and the grapes rot easily, but the wine is powerful, weighty and good. Best producers: (France) de Causses-Marines, de Labarthe, Labastide-de-Lévis co-op.
A less common German name for Lemberger (see before) and the Blaufränkisch of Austria (see here).
One of Greece’s most important red varieties, this is still found on its original home of Lemnos, an island in the northern Aegean Sea, though for some reason is not used for appellation wine there. It is also found in the northeast of Greece, particularly Macedonia and Thrace, where it seems to perform better, and it contributes colour, weight, acidity and a flavour of bay leaves to a blend. Best producer: (Greece) Domaine Carras.
With luck, we’ll be seeing more of this Greek black grape, because it has lovely spicy aromas and flavours and a good silky texture. It also ages well. There’s not much of it planted at the moment, but more and more producers are looking at it. Best producers: Christos Zafirakis, George Tsibidis.
Another name for Palomino, one of the world’s most boring grapes – but one that paradoxically can produce extraordinarily complex flavours when turned into sherry. It is found also in France’s Languedoc and in the Armagnac vineyards of Gascony, but it is being replaced here by better varieties. As Listán Bianco it is important in the Canary Islands. See Palomino Fino here.
Unrelated to Listán, this is found on the Canary Islands, where it is blended with such others as Negramoll (the Tinta Negra Mole of Madeira), Prieto, Tintilla, Malvasia Rosada and others. In Tacoronte-Acentejo on Tenerife it may make up most of the blend, or be made as a varietal.
It is the main red vine on Lanzarote, where the vines are planted in hollows in the black volcanic soil, and sheltered from the strong humid winds by low stone walls. Its wines are mostly soft and appealing, without tremendous weight, and may be made more substantial by oak aging, or softer and lighter by carbonic maceration. There is also a small amount of sweet red made on Tenerife from Listán Negro. Best producers: (Spain) Insulares Tenerife, La Isleta, Monje, La Palmera.
Another name for Spain’s Garnacha Peluda, or hairy Garnacha. A southern French name is Grenache Poilu or Velu. The only difference is that the underside of the leaves have more down on them than normal Garnacha Tinta/Grenache Noir (see here). It is specified in many ACs in Languedoc-Roussillon but doesn't make much of an impression. The grapes are less prone to rot, but the flavour of the wine is very similar to that of Garnacha/Grenache though with rather better acidity.
Aromatic grape used for Vinho Verde in the north of Portugal and, as Loureira, for the very similar wines of Rías Baixas, over the border in northwest Spain.
Its aroma is reminiscent of bay leaves, its taste of apricots, with high acidity and low alcohol. It seems especially suited to the cooler parts of the region around Braga and near the coast; the flavour can sometimes remind one of young Riesling. Yields are high and the wine is either used as a varietal or blended with Trajadura and Paderña in Vinho Verde, or, in Rías Baixas, made as a varietal or blended with Albariño and/or Treixadura. Best producers: (Portugal) Quinta da Aveleda, Quinta da Franqueira, Sogrape, Solar das Bouças, Quinta do Ameal, Quinta do Tamariz.
A non-aromatic variety found across northern Spain and, as Maccabéo or Maccabeu, in France’s Languedoc-Roussillon. It brings neutrality, a resistance to oxidation and sometimes good palate weight to many white blends, but rarely flavour or character.
As Viura (see here) it is the backbone of white Rioja, along with lesser quantities of Malvasia and Garnacha Blanca. Here, it produces a powerful custardy, orange blossom flavour when fermented in oak, and is also beginning to show form with crisp, unoaked wines to drink young.
Macabeo is used for Cava both in Cataluña and elsewhere in northern Spain: Catalan Cava contains an admixture of Parellada and Xarel-lo, though the small amount made in other regions tends to be pure Macabeo.
In Languedoc-Roussillon Macabeo is used for vins doux naturels, and is blended into many white wines in Minervois and Corbières. Its affinity for hot, dry climates – it is prone to rot in wet ones – means that it has also been grown in North Africa. Best producers: (Spain) Agramont, Cosecheros Alaveses, Castellblanch, Cavas Hill, Codorníu, Franco Españolas, Freixenet, Marqués de Monistrol, Masía Barríl, Pirineos; (France) Casenove, Vignerons Catalans, Les Vignerons du Val d’Orbieu.
A bit of confusion here. There’s a dual-purpose table and wine grape vine known as Madeleine Angevine, which has pretty much died out in France but does pop up in cool, wet places because it does ripen very early. I’ve even had Danish and Swedish examples. And there’s Madeleine x Angevine 7672 – you’d think this was just another Madeleine Angevine, but no, it seems to have come from Germany, where they don’t always get round to naming their new vine crosses. Because it is very early-ripening, it has had some success in England, where – correct me if I am wrong – they usually just call it Madeleine Angevine. Well, wouldn’t you? Best producers: (England) Stanlake Park, Three Choirs.
There are two Magliocco grapes, both found in Calabria, and unrelated. Magliocco Dolce is the main one, Magliocco Canino the other. Both feature tannin pretty heavily.
Italian black grape local to the Brescia region of Lombardy. It has deep red berries (‘pigeon’s blood,’ says Cantina Majolini, which makes a varietal – the name of the cellar is coincidental) and makes wine of relatively light body and lots of cherry perfume. As a vine it has big clusters of thin-skinned grapes and dislikes both excessive sun and excessive rain. At the time of writing, fewer than 1000 plants exist, but it’s worth rather more attention.
Very delicious Greek variety making a comeback. The grapes are large, thin-skinned and susceptible to rot, and it’s an early ripener. The wines are gloriously aromatic without being flashy, though poor examples can be heavy: rose petals, ripe citrus, basil are all keynotes. Some producers practise skin contact and a few ferment in barrel. Acidity is on the low side, and sometimes it’s blended with Assyrtiko to remedy that. On its own, it will age successfully for several years in bottle.
Domaine Gerovassilou
Malagousia is one of several almost extinct Greek varieties that are now making some of Greece’s most individual wines. The Gerovassiliou version is wonderfully scented and lightly oaked.
Blandy's
Malmsey wine now has to come from 85% Malvasia grapes, rather than from the inferior Negramoll. Even so, less than 40ha (100 acres) of Malvasia remain on Madeira.
See here.
An occasional Argentinian spelling of Malbec (see here).
More a style of wine than a grape, Malmsey is a corruption of Malvasia (see here), and was in the past used generically for the sweet wines of Greece and the eastern Mediterranean. It is now used specifically for the sweetest style of Madeira.
However, true Malmsey or Malvasia vines have almost disappeared from the island. Only 13–14 per cent of the vines on Madeira are noble varieties – that is, Sercial, Verdelho, Bual or Malmsey – with the rest being Negramoll (previously known as Tinta Negra Mole) or hybrids. True Malmsey Madeira is thus a fairly rare wine, though any bottle that calls itself Malmsey on the label should be made from Malvasia grapes. When young the wine has an attractive floral orange blossom smell; after the characteristic Madeira aging process it becomes pungent, intense and caramelly, rich and smoky, but never loses its acid tang.
The usual Malvasia grown on Madeira is Malvasia de S. Jorge, a modern variety only introduced to Madeira in 1970; it rapidly took over from the traditional Malvasia Candida which had been the island's Malvasia since the 15th century when the Portuguese first arrived. It is subject to irregular fruit set, but achieves good size and acid levels in early ripening, being picked at between 11.5 and 15 per cent potential alcohol. Best producers: (Portugal) Barros e Sousa, Blandy, Cossart Gordon, Henriques & Henriques, Leacock, Rutherford & Miles.
