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| An A-Z of the Great Grape Varietals of the World |
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There are over 180 grape varietals in the world, and over 100 of the most prolific are mentioned here - but which one is the best? That is of course a matter of choice and taste but for the absolute beginner, try the three great white and three great red varietals below, and you shouldn't go wrong.
White - CHARDONNAY, RIESLING, SAUVIGNON BLANC
Red - PINOT NOIR, CABERNET SAUVIGNON and MERLOT
Experiment with these and be adventurous, try something new and exotic from the extensive list below - you never know, you might be extremely surprised!!! For wine tasting hints, click here!
WHITE VARIETALS
Airen – This grape is one of the most widely planted in the world and common on the plains of La Mancha in Spain.
Aligoté – This grape is a tart and exciting grape of Burgundy, France, which tends to be much underrated but makes is the white wine of choice for making the perfect French aperitif, Kir (white wine and crème de cassis).
Aleatico – This grape is a very rare, dark skinned and highly fragrant variety from Italy.
Alvarhino – This grape is used for making the best Vinho Verde in Portugal, and makes an even better quality wine when used on its own. It can also be found in Galicia, Spain, where it is called Albarhino, Although a white wine, it is rich, dry and tastes of blackberries and blackcurrants.
Arneis – This grape is responsible for a crisp white wine that comes from the Arneis di Roeri grape and found extensively in the Piedmont region of Italy.
Auxerrois Blanc – This grape is widely planted throughout Alsace, France and usually composes 50% of the blends known as Edelzwicker.
Blanquette – This grape is also known as Mauzac and produces a sparkling wine in the Languedoc in France called Blanquette de Limoux.
Bordeaux White Blends – Traditionally a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon grapes give great dry white wines such as Graves, although some Bordeaux can be 100% Sauvignon Blanc Sauternes , the most famous Bordeaux sweet white wines comprises typically of 80% Semillon to 20% Sauvignon Blanc.
Bouvier – This grape is mainly found in Austria and is a variety which is low in acidity but prone to noble rot making it suitable for sweet wine production.
Bual – This grape also bears the name of the same wine. It is a delightful, raison-like sweet-styled Madeira wine and can also be known as Boal.
Chardonnay – This grape, depending on production area, is an important grape rich and creamy with extensive oak (New World). In Europe and particularly Burgundy, the grape is less tropical but more mineral based, due to the cooler climate. The beauty of the Chardonnay Vinifera grape, with its aromatic overtones, is that it brings high yields, is extremely easy to grow and importantly does not need to be blended. The Chardonnay grape is an essential grape for méthode champenoise style and sparkling wine around the world. Chardonnays are dry and fruity wines and are used extensively in California – the darling wine of America - and is the only grape grown in the Chablis region of Burgundy.
Chasselas – This grape is widely planted around the world and produces some good quality wines from Switzerland.
Chenin Blanc – This grape grown extensively throughout the world, is famed in the Loire Valley of France, especially in the fabulous area of Vouvray and in South Africa it is their most important grape. In France the wines are strong, pungent, long lasting and great in both sweet and dry varieties and deemed a classic French variety. Being a crisp, dry wine it ages well and forms the basis of some of the world's greatest and long-living sweet wines. It can be aged for up to 20 years.
Clairette – This grape is a good old fashioned grape variety grown throughout France and used extensively in the sparkling wine Clairette de Die.
Colombard – This grape is widely grown throughout California and Australia.
Crouchen – This grape is a neutral but sweet variety usually blended with Riesling.
Doradillo – This grape is a neutral variety grown in Australia.
Fendant – This grape is also known as Chasselas.
Feteasca Alba – This grape is Indigenous to Romania.
Folle Blanche – This grape is the power behind traditional Armagnac. Principally grown in the Muscadet region of France it is increasingly becoming rare and the Ugni Blanc grape, the basis for Cognac is more prominent. Folle Blanche Armagnac is the Champagne of Armagnac.
French Colombard – This grape, like the Folle Blanche grape, has given way to the Ugni Blanc grape for the best Cognacs. It is also used in South Africa and the USA for basic cask and table wine.
Frontignac – This grape is the Australian for Muscat Blanc À Petits Grains and produces highly fragrant and delicate white wines.
Furmint – This grape is very much an Eastern European grape as it is planted extensively throughout Austria, Hungary and Slovenia. The result is the sweet wine Tokaji.
Garganega – This grape provides the basis for best Italian Soave, with the rule of thumb being, the more Garganega and the less Trebbiano, the better the Soave.
Gewürztraminer – This grape originates from the Muscat family and possesses a full, rich, pungent character and is an ideal wine with desserts. The best wines come from Germany, Northern Italy and the Alsace region of France (where it is also known as Tokaj Franc), although excellent versions now exist in the New World, particularly New Zealand. It is primarily known as a sweet wine with a spicy floral bouquet.
Grauburgunder – This grape is also the German name for Pinot Gris.
Grechetto – This grape is blended with Trebbiano and Malvasia in Umbria, Italy to produce Orvieto wine.
Grillo – This grape is grown in Sicily and blended with Catarratto and Inzolia to produce the fortified liqueur wine Marsala.
Gruner Veltliner – This grape is the most commonly planted variety found in Austria.
Hárslevelü – This grape takes second place to the noble sweet wine Tokai.
Huxelrebe – This grape is a Germanic variety, popular with winemakers in England and Wales because of its naturally high sugars.
Inzolia – This grape is grown in Sicily and blended with Catarratto and Grillo to produce the fortified liqueur wine Marsala.
Johannisberg Riesling – This is the new world term for the German Reisling grape.
Juhfark – This grape is native to Hungary.
Kerner – This grape is a hybrid of both the Trollinger and Riesling grape varieties, found extensively throughout Germany. The outcome is wine very similar to Riesling, being delicately perfumed.
Loueira – This grape is principally found throughout Portugal and produces a wine with honey overtones such as Portugal's Vinho Verde. Used exclusively it can produce excellent quality and more expensive Vinho Verde.
Laski Rizling – This grape is grown primarily in Eastern Europe where it appears under various names.
Macabeo – This grape is found throughout Spain and France and an important component of the sparkling Spanish wine Cava.
Mauzac – This grape is a very important variety, found in South West France being the principal varietal of Blanquette de Limoux, the sparkling wine of South West France.
Malmsey – This grape is also known as Malvasia and is Madeira's great dessert wine grape.
Malvasia – This grape is arguably the world's oldest grape, and produces a rich and textured dessert wine found in Greece, Spain, Italy and Madeira. In Italy, it is often blended with Chianti in place of the bland Trebbiano. Malvasia Nera, the red clone, also does good duty as dry wine in Apulia.
Marsanne – This grape is the more important of the two most planted white grapes of the northern Rhône, with the other being Rousanne. It is a very dependable and consistent grape producing high yields of wines with prominent citrus flavours.
Melon de Bourgogne – This grape from Muscadet in France is clean and tart and is the perfect accompaniment to shellfish and seafood. In the US wines labelled Pinot Blanc are actually Melon de Bourgogne.
Misket – This grape is used to produce Bulgarian country wine.
Müller-Thurgau – This grape is found extensively throughout Germany, Northern Italy and New Zealand and produces average to good wines.
Muscadelle – This grape with very Muscat-like aromas is used to enrich and soften sweet (and sometimes dry) white Bourdeaux. Whilst only a small amount can add a lot to the recipient wine it features as a minor component of the great sweet wines of Sauternes and Barsac.
Muscat – This grape is the finest selection of the Muscat family, and a grape with several incarnations - Muscat Blancs á Petits Grains or Muscat Frontignan, Brown Muscat, Muscat d'Alexandria and Muscat Ottonel. Muscat á Petits Grains is the grape of southern French dessert wines (Muscat Beaumes de Venise), Italian wines (Goldenmuskateller) and Italian sparklers (Moscato d'Asti and Asti Spumante). Brown Muscat is very rich and full in Australia's Liquour Muscats. Muscat d'Alexandria offers the best dessert wines on the northern Sicialian islands of Pantelleria, in southern France (Muscat de Lunel, Rivesaltes) and with Moscatel de Setubal in Portugal. Muscat Ottonel is a lighter, less-interesting subvariety. Black Muscat also exists as a very dark variety.
Muscat of Alexandria – This grape is an inferior version of the main Muscat grape but does produce the excellent variety Muscat de Rivesaltes, a sweet wine of Rousillon in South East France and Moscatel in Spain. It is also known as Muscat Gordo Blanco for inexpensive sweet sherry styles in Australia.
Muscat Ottonel – This grape is a variety of Muscat used in the aromatic Muscat wines of Alsace and Austria.
Muscat Blanc À Petits Grains – This grape is known in Australia as Frontignac for all sweeter white wines. It is one of the best of the Muscat varietals, used in the great Rhone Valley sweet wine Muscat de Beaumes de Venise and the perfumed Italian sparkling wines known as Asti.
Orange Muscat – This grape is little known but small amounts planted in California and Australia.
Palomino – This grape is the grape of Sherry and at its best at home in Andalusia, Spain. It is considered one of the greatest of all fortified wines and the resulting Sherry is made anywhere between sweet and dry.
Parellada- This is an important variety in the Penedes region of Spain for the production of Cava wines.
Pedro Ximinez – This grape is very sweet and used for intense dessert wines in Sherry and Montilla-Morales in Spain. It is also used to sweeten the Palomino juice for Oloroso, or dessert Sherries.
Petit Manseng – This grape is extremely thick skinned and produces a semi-sweet wine.
Picolit – This grape is a relatively new find and is used principally to make Italian dessert wine that is sweet but sharp.
Pinot Blanc – This grape is identical to Pinot Gris in all ways except that Pinot Gris has sweet versions and has found prominence in Alsace. Pinot Blanc exudes pear and stonefruit overtones.
Pinot Gris – This grape offers fantastic, everyday drinking wines from in Italy, Germany and the New World, but principally from the Alsace region of France. It exudes creamy apple flavours and can exist in both sweet and dry varieties, although principally Pinot Gris (a mutation of the red Pinot Noir) and known as Pinot Grigio in some parts of the world typically makes a dry and very crisp, acidic white wine.
Prosecco – This grape is an important one for marking the Italian sparkling aperitif wine.
Reichensteiner – This is a German variety popular with wine makers in England and Wales.
Ribolla Gialla – This yellow grape from Friuli-Venezia in Italy gives wines reflecting honey and orange flavours.
Riesling – This grape is one of the world's greatest grapes and grown throughout the world with mixed results, although the US and Australia deliver some interesting wines. Of German origins, this is a late ripening grape that does only offer a low yield yet all of Germany's great wines (with a few small exceptions) are from the Riesling grape. It is principally thought of as a sweet wine, although less tart versions come from the New World. Alsace offers the finest outside of Germany, with a higher alcohol level, but both Austria and Australia are producing great varieties. This grape is rich and crisp when young, but can age for ten to fifty years, sweetening with time.
Rkatsiteli – This grape is in fact the most widely planted in Eastern Europe, and the third most planted grape in the world, producing wines of a spicy, floral and citric nature.
Romorantin – This grape produces delightfully soft, crisp wines grape from the eastern Loire valley of France.
Roussanne - This grape is the less important of the two most planted white grapes of the northern Rhône, with the other more dominant being Marsanne. It is a rich, honeyed grape that although dominant is disappearing from the vineyards of White Hermitage. A hard grape to ripen, it is rich and powerful and does feature in some of the better white Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Rulander – This grape is also known in Germany as Pinot Gris.
Sauvignon Blanc – This grape is blended with Semillon to produce the dry whites of Bordeaux and also used in smaller proportions for Sauternes and Barsac. It is a stalwart of the Loire Valley in France, producing the great Pouilly Fumé and Sancerre. Australia and New Zealand have picked up the variety and produce wines as equal to those of France – sometimes referred to when mixed with Semillon as SSB or SBS. A great wine with food Sauvignon Blanc is an aromatic and flavourful wine, varying from light and dry to full and sweet.
Savagnin – This grape is grown in the Jura in eastern France where it produces a wine peculiar to the region called Vin Jaune - an unfortified sherry like wine.
Savatiano – This grape is a Greek variety used in the production of Retsina.
Scheurebe – This grape is a hybrid of both Silvaner and Riesling varieties and produces short lived wines with stonefruit flavours.
Schinberger – This grape produces spicy wines reminiscent of Gewurztraminer.
Sémillon – This grape is blended with Sauvignon Blanc to produce the dry whites of Bordeaux and also used in smaller proportions for Sauternes and Barsac. Once a great wine on its own, it is now used principally for blending in France, although in the New World it is produced and aged similar to Chardonnay in Australia producing wines that offer little oak and fascinating stony flavours.
Sercial – This grape is a dry varietal from Madeira and is long-lived and firm regardless of age.
Seyval Blanc – This grape is a French hybrid with crisp citric character and is pleasant to drink and grown in the middle and eastern U.S. The most successful grape grown in the UK.
Siegerrebe – This grape is a Madeleine-Angevine/ Gewürtztraminer cross and is grown throughout Germany.
Silvaner/Sylvaner – This grape is principally from Austria and is full and clean rather than over powerful.
Steen – This grape is also known as Chenin Blanc in South Africa.
Taminga – This grape is a neutral variety from Australia.
Tocai Friuliano – This grape is from North East Italy and is known as Sauvignonasse in Chile and Sauvignon Vert in France.
Tokay – This grape is a synonym of Muscatelle and used to make the great liqueur Tokay wines from Australia.
Torrontes – This grape is grown in Argentina where it makes good quality dry white wines.
Trajadura – This grape is a Portuguese variety blended with Loureiro to produce commercial Vinho Verde.
Trebbiano – This grape is said to be the world's most prolific vine and the basis for Cognac and most Armagnac. Sometimes blended with Garganega to produce Soave this grape is still more often distilled than vinified into wine.
Verdejo – This grape is from the Rueda region in Spain and produces very good dry and blackcurrant flavoured white wines.
Verdelho – This grape is closely associated with the Portuguese island of Madeira although a classic Italian white grape variety. It produces a full flavoured, spicy wine with crisp acidity and unusual lime flavours.
Verdicchio – This grape is a classic Italian variety from the Marche region on the eastern coast of Italy and produces crisp, lemony wines with high natural acidity.
Vermentino – This grape is widely grown on Sardinia and in Liguria on the Italian Riviera, as well as on the island of Corsica. It produces lively, aromatic wines.
Vernaccia – This grape is actually a collection of different grapes (including red) that are grown in Italy and bear this name. It is typically crisp, clean and slightly orange-flavoured, and is said to be Tuscany's best white wine.
Vidal Blanc – This grape is an Ugni Blanc-based hybrid grown in both sweet and dry versions in the United States.
Villard Blanc – This grape is part of the Seyve Villard group of French hybrids and known to have a bitter taste.
Vignoles – This hybrid grape is also known as Ravat offering dessert type wines.
Viognier – This grape is rare in Europe but originated in Condrieu in the northern Rhone Valley. It is widely planted in the New World where despite being difficult to grow it produces excellent yields. It produces a highly perfumed wine of medium to full body and spicy fruit flavour and is best served young for its fruity, floral bouquet tend to fade with time.
Viura – This grape is used in the production of white Rioja giving a wine of good fruit and acidity.
Weisser Burgunder – This grape is the German name for Pinot Blanc.
Welschriesling – This grape is widely planted throughout Austria.
White Zinfandel –This is in fact a red grape that produces a pale-rose wine with quite a sweet taste and served chilled (The red skins are removed before the wines colour can be affected)
Xarello – This grape is found throughout Spain and France and an important component of the sparkling Spanish wine Cava.
Xynestri – This grape is planted in Cyprus and produces a beautifully sweet and long-lived dessert wine called Commanderia.
RED VARIETALS
Aglianico – This grape is from southern Italy that exudes cherry overtones and a lively finish.
Aleatico – This grape is similar to Black Muscat and produces sweet dessert wines.
Alicante Bouchet – This grape is one of the only grapes in the world with red, not clear, juice and is used only in blends, rather than solely on its own.
Alvarelhão – This grape is widely planted throughout Portugal.
Baga – This grape is an interesting, yet tannic grape from Bairrada in Portugal.
Barbera – This grape is Italy's most common red grape and bottled both on its own and in blends. Better quality wines tend to be deep purple, bone-dry, and mouthfilling, with red and black fruit (blackberry, currant, prune) flavours and aromas of nutmeg, black pepper and smoke. Great, more concentrated Barberas may be aged, but most are medium-bodied with moderate tannins and are drunk fairly young.
Bastardo – This grape is an inferior Port variety.
Black Muscat – This grape is a thick and gooey dark Muscat variety.
Bordeaux Red Blends – These grape varieties are sometimes known collectively as Claret. The typical red Bordeaux recipe is 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, although it varies from Château to Château. Great Bordeaux reds like St. Émilion or Pomerol blend tend to be 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Bouchet – This grape is also known as Cabernet Franc, particularly in St Emilion in Bordeaux.
Brachetto – This grape is used in sparkling varieties and known as Brachetto d'Acqui in the Piedmont region of Italy.
Brunello – This grape also goes by the name of Sangiovese. Produces Brunello di Montalcino in Tuscany.
Cabernet Franc – This grape is related to Cabernet Sauvignon, but with less tannin and more fruit flavours making it lighter and fruitier. Cabernet Franc is used widely in Bordeaux especially and Medoc, where it is blended with other Bordeaux varietals such as Sauvignon. 100% Cabernet Franc wines are found all over the world, with best being Chinon from the Loire Valley.
Cabernet Sauvignon – This grape is found almost everywhere in the world, although the principal grape of Bordeaux, being blended with Cabernet Franc and Merlot. In Australia, it is often found with Shiraz as the blender. Whilst young this wine is very high in tannins and develops with age. In the US, wines bearing the name Meritage are usually a blend high in Cabernet Sauvignon.
Canaiolo Nero – This grape is the primary blending grape for Chianti.
Cannonau – This grape is also known as the Sardinian Grenache.
Carignan – This grape is an inferior grape from North Africa, used for blending in France. The only notable exception is Banyuls, which gives a complex, dry, powerful aged red wine.
Carmenere – This grape is prominent as a traditional Bordeaux variety but now Carmenere has risen to prominence in Chile.
Catawba – This grape is a simple, somewhat odorous American hybrid.
Cencibel – This grape is also known as Tempranillo.
Chambourcin – This grape is a hybrid of French origin, with good examples grown in the US and Australia, where it is known as Cassegrain.
Chancellor – This grape is a French hybrid that is popular in the US.
Charbono – This grape is the cousin of Barbera and very small quantities of this red variety are planted in California. The grape is fairly tannic and is affected by hot sun so is required to be ripened slowly. The result is a wine with black fruit flavours, aromas of damsons, leather and tar.
Cinsault – This grape is widespread in the South of France and an important component and blending grape in the world's greatest rosés at Tavel. In South Africa it is known as Pinotage, is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault.
Concord – This grape is a native variety of the eastern U.S. and suitable only for jam.
Corvina – This grape is the predominant variety of the Valpolicella region of Italy and produces the great wines of Valpolicella and Amarone and is also a primary component of Italy's famous sweet wine Recioto.
Cot – This grape is also known as Malbec.
Criolla – This grape is the most widely planted grape variety in Argentina where it produces vast quantities of wine.
Cynthiana – This grape is also known as the Norton grape and it is America's best native variety.
Dolcetto – This grape is a soft and juicy varietal, almost Zinfandel-like, that is famed in the Piedmont region of Italy, where it is drunk young.
Doradillo – This grape is mostly grown in Australia for use in basic fortified wines.
Dornfelder – This grape has been developed in Germany where its red coloured flesh enables deeply coloured red wines to be produced in a cool climate.
Durif – This grape is successfully grown in Northern Victoria, Australia, but is known in America as Petite Sirah.
Flora – This grape is a hybrid of Gewurtraminer and Semillon.
Freisa – This grape from the Piedmont region of Italy produces a beautiful, thick wine with berry flavours.
Gamay – This grape is the primary grape of the Beaujolais region of France. It is responsible for great wines like Brouilly and Fleurie and makes a pleasant, simple and fruity wine. Beaujolais wines that are created with the Gamay grape have sugar added during the fermentation process to increase the alcohol content.
Gamay Beaujolais – This grape is a lesser clone of Gamay, and by no means as good as the original.
Gamza – This grape is a Bulgarian variety often blended with a well known international variety to produce Bulgarian country wine. Usually good value for money.
Garnacha – This grape is known as Grenache in Spain where it is the most widely planted black grape variety. Produces wines high in alcohol with a tendency to mature early. The main grape variety of Navarra and also a constituent of Rioja.
Graciano – This grape produces rich, perfumed wine deep colour.
Grenache – This grape is a strong grape varietal from North Africa but is the second grape of Rioja, Spain after Tempranillo, and can also be found in Navarro. In France it is used for excellent roses and found in the best full bodied wines like Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas.
Grignolino – This grape produces a slightly odd, lightly coloured wine from the Piedmont region of Italy, which behaves like a red wine that had been designed to be drunk like a crisp white!
Grolleau/Groslet – This grape is only really found in the Loire valley in France where it produces undistinguished wines and the base for Rose D'Anjou.
Jurancon Noir – This grape is a variety found in the south west of France where it forms part of the blend for the wines of Cahors along with Malbec, Tannat and Merlot.
Kadarca – This grape is a Hungarian variety most notably found in the wine Egri Bikaver, better known as Bulls Blood of Eger.
Kefrankos – This grape is a Hungarian variety most notably found in the wine Egri Bikaver, better known as Bulls Blood of Eger.
Lambrusco – This grape is used to produce a fruity, effervescent Italian wine.
Lemberger – This grape is planted in Southern Germany and Austria and produces medium- bodied red wine.
Malbec – This grape is a ripe, lush black grape variety, which was once popular in Bordeaux but now a successful varietal in Argentina and Chile.
Matora – This grape is the Spanish name for Mourvadre.
Mavrodaphne- This grape is a Greek variety producing dry red wines but more famous for the sweet liqueur wine Mavrodaphne of Patras.
Mavrud – This grape from Bulgaria gives a fruity and powerful wine with a potential to age well.
Mazuelo – This grape is the Spanish name for Carignan used in the Rioja region.
Melnik – This grape is used to produce Bulgarian country wine.
Merlot – This grape was principally used as a blending grape because its complex but mellow taste takes the edge off of harsher wines, but it is the mainstay of many Pomerols and St. Émilions. Merlots are popular wines on their own, producing wines of great softness, fruitiness with soft tannins and richness, although in the New World, it is widely available in mixed varietal labelled offerings. It is a grape that has been nearly as successful in its varied and diverse plantings throughout the world as Cabernet Sauvignon.
Mission – This grape was brought by the Franciscan fathers to the U.S Southwest, and just a few vineyards are still bottling this sweet wine.
Montepulciano – This grape produces thick and enjoyable wine from the Abruzzo and Marche regions in Italy.
Mondeuse – This grape produces strong flavoured, deeply coloured wines.
Mourvèdre – This grape is popular to the Provence and the southern Rhône regions in France.
Nebbiolo – This grape is arguably the greatest grape from Italy, giving birth to great reds like Barolo and Barbaresco. The cherry and flower flavours mean this powerful black grape variety can age and improve for twenty five years or more.
Negrette – This grape is grown in the south west of France where it produces Cotes de Frontonnais, a juicy red wine with a distinctive blackberry fruit aroma.
Pais – This grape is extensively planted throughout Chile.
Palomino – This grape is used as the predominant variety to make Sherry and Sherry styles.
Pedro Ximénes – This grape is renowned for the production of rich, raison-like fortified wine.
Petit Verdot – This grape is a lesser Bordeaux grape.
Petite Sirah – This grape has no association with Syrah/Shiraz and is considered quite a poor grape, despite turning out some good wines. In France it is known as French Duriff and is primarily used for blending due to its strong tannins, but it does age well.
Pinot Meunier – This grape is the most widely planted grape in Champagne, and in the smaller Domaines can be used exclusively 100% in the cuvee, rather than being blended with the traditional Chardonnay.
Pinot Noir – This grape is the classic grape of Burgundy. It is successfully grown throughout the new world and produces a wine that is easy to drink whatever the age. The grape is light skinned and aromatic and despite being hard to grew and cultivate is the grape used in making the Red Sancerre Wine. It is also an important component in many styles of sparkling wine and Champagne, adding structure, flavour, and is usually medium to deep ruby red in colour, full-bodied, quite aromatic and possesses a wide variety of flavours.
Pinotage – This grape is a cloning of Cinsault and Pinot Noir and is South Africa's most widely planted grape varietal. The yield is high and this is to South Africa what the Zinfandel grape is to California.
Plavac Mali – This grape is quite rare and found on the coast of Dalmatia and produces expensive wines.
Primitivo – This grape is most often known in the pink (or "white" as it's referred to) version. In America it is known as Zinfandel and found its way to Europe from California with early migrants. Due to the increased popularity of the white version, Zinfandel is California's most planted grape. A great food wine with berry and grape flavours and normally a full-bodied, dry wine with a deep red hue. The white (actually rosé) version is usually a light, slightly sweet wine appropriate for aperitifs and picnic foods. As a dry red or even late harvest dessert wine Zinfandel/Primitivo provides robust grapey aromas.
Prugnolo- This grape is a clone of Sangiovese grown in Tuscany where it produces a very good wine similar in style to the best Chiantis.
Ramisco – This grape is found on the V the beaches of Colares, north of Lisbon and produce wines that are tart, impressive and very long-lived.
Refosco del Peduncolo Rosso - This grape is a deeply-coloured Italian red varietal.
Refosco Nostrano - This grape is a deeply-coloured Italian red varietal.
Rondinella – This grape is used in the production of Valpolicella.
Roriz – This grape is used in the production of red Port.
Rubired – This grape is a deep coloured hybrid variety, commonly used in blends.
Ruby Cabernet – This grape is a hybrid variety of Carignan and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Sangiovese – This grape is the primary grape of Chianti as well as several well-known imitations such as Brunelli, the grape of Brunello Monalcino; Pignolo, the grape of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and the cultish Sangioveto. The grape produces wines that tend to cherry sweet with leathery undertones, making it a superb wine when made well.
Saperavi – This grape is a cool climate variety that is grown on just two vineyards in North East Victoria, Australia.
Sargantino – This grape produced rich tannic wine from Southern Umbria.
Sercial – This grape is used to make light, dry styles of Madeira.
Sousao – This grape is a lesser known and used red Port variety.
Spanna – This is also known as Nebbiolo.
Syrah/Shiraz – This grape is common to the northern Rhône region of France which lends it self to the unblended wines of Hermitage and Cornas. In Australia it is both the every day drinking wine, and the fine wine if choice, due to its heavy, spicy fruit. In Australia it is known as Shiraz.
Tannat – This grape has heavy tannins and is a good substance to Madrian, the neighbour of Bordeaux and home of Armagnac.
Tarrango – This grape is a hybrid of Touriga and Sultana.
Tempranillo – This grape is the most important and the heart and soul of Rioja from Spain. It ages well and has rich, dark and fruity flavours. This grape is known also as Tinta Roriz.
Terret Noir – This grape is grown in the South of France.
Tinta Amarela – This grape is a lesser known and used red Port variety.
Tinta Barocca – This grape is used in the production of red Port.
Tinto Cão – This grape is one of the 34 legally permitted grape varieties of Port and is grown along with Tinta Barroca, Tinta Roriz (also called Tempranillo, and one of Port's finest grapes) and Tinta Amerella.
Tinta Negra Mole - This grape is from Madeira as has been known as "faux" Malmsey, Bual, Verdelho or Sercial. Used primarily as a blending grape.
Tinta Roriz – This grape is the Portuguese name for Tempranillo.
Touriga Nacional – This grape is one of the mainstays of great Port, but also makes for a very good dry red wine, principally from the Dao region of Portugal.
Touriga Francesa – This grape is an important variety for red Port, along the lines of Touriga Nacional.
Trollinger – This grape is Widely planted in Württemberg, Germany and produces light-bodied, fresh, fruity red wines which are often sweet.
Xynomavro – This grape is by far the best red that Greece has to offer.
Zinfandel - This grape is most often known in the pink (or "white" as it's referred to) version. In Italy it is known as Primitivo and found its way to Europe from California with early migrants. Due to the increased popularity of the white version, Zinfandel is California's most planted grape. A great food wine with berry and grape flavours and normally a full-bodied, dry wine with a deep red hue. The white (actually rosé) version is usually a light, slightly sweet wine appropriate for aperitifs and picnic foods. As a dry red or even late harvest dessert wine Zinfandel/Primitivo provides robust grapey aromas.
Zweigekt – This grape is an Austrian variety with an attractive cherry fruit aroma.
Fortified/Sweet Varietals
Bastardo – This grape is an inferior Port variety.
Bual – This grape also bears the name of the same wine. It is a delightful, raison-like sweet-styled Madeira wine and can also be known as Boal.
Chenin Blanc – This grape grown extensively throughout the world, is famed in the Loire Valley of France, especially in the fabulous area of Vouvray and in South Africa it is their most important grape. In France the wines are strong, pungent, long lasting and great in both sweet and dry varieties and deemed a classic French variety. Being a crisp, dry wine it ages well and forms the basis of some of the world's greatest and long-living sweet wines. It can be aged for up to 20 years.
Corvina – This grape is the predominant variety of the Valpolicella region of Italy and produces the great wines of Valpolicella and Amarone and is also a primary component of Italy's famous sweet wine Recioto.
Doradillo – This grape is mostly grown in Australia for use in basic fortified wines.
Furmint – This grape is very much an Eastern European grape as it is planted extensively throughout Austria, Hungary and Slovenia. The result is the sweet wine Tokaji.
Gewürztraminer – This grape originates from the Muscat family and possesses a full, rich, pungent character and is an ideal wine with desserts. The best wines come from Germany, Northern Italy and the Alsace region of France (where it is also known as Tokaj Franc), although excellent versions now exist in the New World, particularly New Zealand. It is primarily known as a sweet wine with a spicy floral bouquet.
Grenache – This grape is a strong grape varietal from North Africa but is the second grape of Rioja, Spain after Tempranillo, and cane also be found in Navarro. In France it is used for excellent roses and found in the best full bodied wines like Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas.
Hárslevelü – This grape takes second place to the noble sweet wine Tokai.
Malvasia – This grape is arguably the world's oldest grape, and produces a rich and textured dessert wine found in Greece, Spain, Italy and Madeira. In Italy, it is often blended with Chianti in place of the bland Trebbiano. Malvasia Nera, the red clone, also does good duty as dry wine in Apulia.
Muscadelle – This grape with very Muscat-like aromas is used to enrich and soften sweet (and sometimes dry) white Bourdeaux. Whilst only a small amount can add a lot to the recipient wine it features as a minor component of the great sweet wines of Sauternes and Barsac.
Muscat – This grape is the finest selection of the Muscat family, and a grape with several incarnations - Muscat Blancs á Petits Grains or Muscat Frontignan, Brown Muscat, Muscat d'Alexandria and Muscat Ottonel. Muscat á Petits Grains is the grape of southern French dessert wines (Muscat Beaumes de Venise), Italian wines (Goldenmuskateller) and Italian sparklers (Moscato d'Asti and Asti Spumante). Brown Muscat is very rich and full in Australia's Liquour Muscats. Muscat d'Alexandria offers the best dessert wines on the northern Sicialian islands of Pantelleria, in southern France (Muscat de Lunel, Rivesaltes) and with Moscatel de Setubal in Portugal. Muscat Ottonel is a lighter, less-interesting subvariety. Black Muscat also exists as a very dark variety.
Muscat of Alexandria – This grape is an inferior version of the main Muscat grape but does produce the excellent variety Muscat de Rivesaltes, a sweet wine of Rousillon in South East France and Moscatel in Spain. It is also known as Muscat Gordo Blanco for inexpensive sweet sherry styles in Australia.
Muscat Ottonel – This grape is a variety of Muscat used in the aromatic Muscat wines of Alsace and Austria.
Muscat Blanc À Petits Grains – This grape is known in Australia as Frontignac for all sweeter white wines. It is one of the best of the Muscat varietals, used in the great Rhone Valley sweet wine Muscat de Beaumes de Venise and the perfumed Italian sparkling wines known as Asti.
Orange Muscat – This grape is little known but small amounts planted in California and Australia.
Palomino – This grape is the grape of Sherry and at its best at home in Andalusia, Spain. It is considered one of the greatest of all fortified wines and the resulting Sherry is made anywhere between sweet and dry.
Pedro Ximinez – This grape is very sweet and used for intense dessert wines in Sherry and Montilla-Morales in Spain. It is also used to sweeten the Palomino juice for Oloroso, or dessert Sherries.
Pedro Ximénes – This grape is renowned for the production of rich, raison-like fortified wine.
Riesling – This grape is one of the world's greatest grapes and grown throughout the world with mixed results, although the US and Australia deliver some interesting wines. Of German origins, this is a late ripening grape that does only offer a low yield yet all of Germany's great wines (with a few small exceptions) are from the Riesling grape. It is principally thought of as a sweet wine, although less tart versions come from the New World. Alsace offers the finest outside of Germany, with a higher alcohol level, but both Austria and Australia are producing great varieties. This grape is rich and crisp when young, but can age for ten to fifty years, sweetening with time.
Roriz – This grape is used in the production of red Port.
Sauvignon Blanc – This grape is blended with Semillon to produce the dry whites of Bordeaux and also used in smaller proportions for Sauternes and Barsac. It is a stalwart of the Loire Valley in France, producing the great Pouilly Fumé and Sancerre. Australia and New Zealand have picked up the variety and produce wines as equal to those of France – sometimes referred to when missed with Semillon as SSB or SBS. A great wine with food Sauvignon Blanc is an aromatic and flavourful wine, varying from light and dry to full and sweet.
Sémillon – This grape is blended with Sauvignon Blanc to produce the dry whites of Bordeaux and also used in smaller proportions for Sauternes and Barsac. Once a great wine on its own, it is now used principally for blending in France, although in the New World it is produced and aged similar to Chardonnay in Australia producing wines that offer little oak and fascinating stony flavours.
Sercial – This grape is used to make light, dry styles of Madeira.
Sousao – This grape is a lesser known and used red Port variety.
Tinta Amarela – This grape is a lesser known and used red Port variety.
Tinta Barocca – This grape is used in the production of red Port.
Tinta Cão – This grape is a high quality variety used in the production of Port.
Tokay – This grape is a synonym of Muscatelle and used to make the great liqueur Tokay wines from Australia.
Touriga Nacional – This grape is one of the mainstays of great Port, but also makes for a very good dry red wine, principally from the Dao region of Portugal.
Touriga Francesa – This grape is an important variety for red Port, along the lines of Touriga Nacional.
Verdelho – This grape is closely associated with the Portuguese island of Madeira although a classic Italian white grape variety. It produces a full flavoured, spicy wine with crisp acidity and unusual lime flavours.
Sparkling Varietals
Chardonnay – This grape, depending on production area, is an important grape rich and creamy with extensive oak (New World). In Europe and particularly Burgundy, the grape is less tropical but more mineral based, due to the cooler climate. The beauty of the Chardonnay Vinifera grape, with its aromatic overtones, is that it brings high yields, is extremely easy to grow and importantly does not need to be blended. The Chardonnay grape is an essential grape for méthode champenoise style and sparkling wine around the world. Chardonnays are dry and fruity wines and are used extensively in California – the darling wine of America - and is the only grape grown in the Chablis region of Burgundy.
Chenin Blanc – This grape grown extensively throughout the world, is famed in the Loire Valley of France, especially in the fabulous area of Vouvray and in South Africa it is their most important grape. In France the wines are strong, pungent, long lasting and great in both sweet and dry varieties and deemed a classic French variety. Being a crisp, dry wine it ages well and forms the basis of some of the world's greatest and long-living sweet wines. It can be aged for up to 20 years. Used in the Loire sparkling wines of Saumur Mousseux and Cremant de Loire.
Macabeo – This grape is found throughout Spain and France and an important component of the sparkling Spanish wine Cava.
Mauzac – This grape is a very important variety, found in South West France being the principal varietal of Blanquette de Limoux, the sparkling wine of South West France.
Muscat Blanc À Petits Grains – This grape is known in Australia as Frontignac for all sweeter white wines. It is one of the best of the Muscat varietals, used in the great Rhone Valley sweet wine Muscat de Beaumes de Venise and the perfumed Italian sparkling wines known as Asti.
Pinot Meunier – This grape is the most widely planted grape in Champagne, and in the smaller Domaines can be used exclusively 100% in the cuvee, rather than being blended with the traditional Chardonnay.
Pinot Noir – This grape is the classic grape of Burgundy. It is successfully grown throughout the new world and produces a wine that is easy to drink whatever the age. The grape is light skinned and aromatic and despite being hard to grew and cultivate is the grape used in making the Red Sancerre Wine. It is also an important component in many styles of sparkling wine and Champagne, adding structure, flavour, and is usually medium to deep ruby red in colour, full-bodied, quite aromatic and possesses a wide variety of flavours.
Prosecco – This grape is an important one for marking the Italian sparkling aperitif wine.
Riesling – This grape is one of the world's greatest grapes and grown throughout the world with mixed results, although the US and Australia deliver some interesting wines. Of German origins, this is a late ripening grape that does only offer a low yield yet all of Germany's great wines (with a few small exceptions) are from the Riesling grape. It is principally thought of as a sweet wine, although less tart versions come from the New World. Alsace offers the finest outside of Germany, with a higher alcohol level, but both Austria and Australia are producing great varieties. This grape is rich and crisp when young, but can age for ten to fifty years, sweetening with time. An important component of the German Sparkling wine Sekt.
Xarello – This grape is found throughout Spain and France and an important component of the sparkling Spanish wine Cava.
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