Red

Barbera, traditionally from Piedmont, Italy and now showing up in Argentina, this grape grows very well in poor soil, and produces wines that contain massive fruit, strong in acidity, but are traditionally low in tannin.00

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Cabernet Franc, one of the main Bordeaux grapes, used often to give some bounce to wines that are predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon, or Merlot, tends to give a strong nose or herbs and peppers and can often resemble tobacco on the palate. The famous right bank Cheval Blanc is made largely of Cabernet Franc. It is the predominate variety for reds in the Loire Valley, it defends itself well against disease, and prefers clay soils and cool climates.

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Cabernet Sauvignon is certainly one of the most widely grown grapes in the world. It is used to make blends and single grape variety wines from all over the old and new world alike. It is used as the main variety in most every Grand Cru Classé wines of the Mêdoc, and therefore is responsible for some of the most famous wines in the world. It is a small, think skinned grape that defends itself against disease very well, and prefers a long hot growing season. It has a natural affinity with oak, which tends to result in the cedar wood flavours of Mêdoc that we all admire so well.

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Carignan , also known as Ceriërena in Spain, can account for well over half he entire cépage of Languedoc region. It is used along with Cinsault, Mourvèdre, Syrah, Merlot Cabernet Franc, and many others to make very interesting blends that make the South of France one of the most interesting and exciting wine growing regions in the world. It is a late harvesting grape that can endure intense heat, and can give a lot of tannin.

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Carmenere, it is believed was used to a large extent in Mêdoc, before the Phylloxera plague in 1867 wiped it our. It was then, and remains today a grape mostly used for blending in the sae way Petit Verdot is used. It is also being grown in Chile and Argentina for both blending and as single grape product.

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Cinsaut or Cinsault is, due to its tolerance to intense heat, the 4th most planted grape in France. It ripens early, and makes wine with very intense flavour. It is most famously used in the production of Chateauneuf du Pape, Hermitage, and other Northern Rhone reds. It was crossed with Pinot Noir in South Africa to make their unique "Pinotage."

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Gamay probably originated as a mutation of Pinot Noir, when vinified by a process known as 'macêration carbonique' it is responsible for all Beaujolais wines including Fleurie, Juliênas, Moulin à Vent and many many others. It is also widely used in the Loire Valley, to make wines like Touraine. They are light and easy to drink.

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Grenache grows well in hot, dry regions, and is grown widely in Southern France, Spain, Australia and North America. It is one of many component grape in making Chateauneuf du Pape, and is also used in blending many of the wines produced in the Langeudoc. Known as Garnacha in Spain, it is thick skinned and prefers very hot climates.

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Malbec is originally a French grape that has built a new found fame as a South American variety. It has been known as many different things over the years. It was responsible for the "Black Wine" of Cahors where is was called "Cot." It has also been known as "Auxxerrois," and "Pressac" in St Emilion, where it remains one of the five permitted black grapes in Bordeaux. It is dark and thick-skinned, and can provide big tannins, and robust leathery flavours.

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Merlot has become one of the most popular red grapes in world wine production. Famous for soft accessible flavours, it is never too austere, and generally give fresh, plummy flavours. It is a small grape that is very susceptible to noble rot, and frost damage in the spring. It is widely grown all over the world, but is the primary grape in the famous Bordeaux regions of St. Emilion and Pomerol. It mixes very well with Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, to make some of the most exclusive wines in the world.

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Mourvèdre is known by many other names all over the world. In Spain it is Monastrell, in many parts of the new world, it is known as Mataro. Used in many regions, it is most famous in the South of France, especially in Bandol on the coast of Provence, where it gets mixed with Grenache and Syrah. In hot years, this grape is capable of making wines of high alcohol and tannin levels.

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Nebbiolo is used in the famous wines of Barolo and Barbaresco in the North West hilly regions of Italy. It produced wines of intense dryness and cheek clenching tannins when young, that have massive maturing potential, and generally go for healthy sums of money. After generous ageing, these wines tend to take on a notable brown colour around the edge, and obtain amazing vegetal flavours.

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Nero d'Avola A red grape variety from Sicily, with potential to make wines of rather high quality and is generally used to make enjoyable, accessible wines at a more affordable price. It is also frequently part of the blend in some Marsala wines.

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Petit Verdot is a variety of grape, used principally in blends to give more apparent aroma to Cabernet dominated wines. It is a very late ripening grape, which makes it unpredictable and hard to grow in many areas, which is why it is often only seen is small quantities in some of Bordeaux most prestigious regions of Mêdoc and Margaux. It is also being grown in small quantities in Chile, California and Australia.

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Pinot Meunier, also known as Schwarzriesling or Müllerrebe, is a variety of black grape best known in a blend with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the production of Champagne. It is ineligible to receive Grand Cru status, and Meunier based champagnes are much more rare than Pinot Noir-Chardonnay based Champagnes. Although, Pinot Meunier is re-gaining its recognition for the body and richness it can contribute to Champagne.

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Pinot Noir, known as Pinot Nero in Italian, is a black grape, considered to make some of the worlds greatest wines. It is often a low yielding grape, generally agreed to reach its best in the appellations of Burgundy, and is also used widely in the production of Champagne. It is a thin-skinned grape, which leaves it open to attack from bunch rot and other fungal diseases in hot climates. This is why it enjoys cooler climates, and can be very difficult to grow. It enjoys its best New World production in New Zealand, and northern U.S. states such as Oregon and Washington. In South Africa, it was spliced with Cinsaut, to make a version that could withstand the intense heat. The result was the unique Pinotage.

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Pinotage is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault (called Hermitage in South Africa, after the region in the Rhone Valley, where the grape is dominant.) It was created in 1925 by Prof. Abraham Izak Perold at the Stellenbosch University, and has become South Africa most famous red. It generally shows huge fruit concentration, and good aging potential.

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Sangiovese derives from sanguis Jovis, "the blood of Jove". It is an Italian, slow ripening grape that can be found in blends and in single varieties. It is a major component in Chianti, and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. It also plays a major role in Brunello di Montalcino, where a superior clone called Sangiovese Grosso is used.

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Shiraz and Syrah are entirely interchangeable and refer to the same grape. Competing historic accounts state that the Syrah/Shiraz was brought into southern France by a returning crusader, Guy De'Sterimberg. He became a hermit and developed a vineyard on a steep hill where he lived in the Rhone River Valley. It became known as the Hermitage. It is grown all over the world, to great success in Australia and California. And is most famous for the wines of the Northern Rhone, Côte-Rôtie, Crozes Hermitage and St. Joseph. Shiraz can survive well in intense heat and hard granite soils, and the best examples will age for decades. Others can be enjoyed while young, and huge red and blue berry flavours and lively fresh tannins.

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Tannat is known best for the intense, dry and massively tannic wines of Madiran in the south west of France. Here it is aided by Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc to make a rough wine, which after a few years in a cellar becomes sensual and dry.

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Tempranillo is native to Spain and is generally cultivated in the centre and north of the Iberian Peninsulla. It also plays a minor role in the wines of Portugal where it is known as Tinta Roriz. It tends to do better in cooler regions, as it cannot tolerate hot and dry weather. It also has a low resistance to pests and disease. It is usually used in blends, and with Garnacha and Mazuelo, it is the major component of Rioja. It can be enjoyed young, but is considered at its best when aged in oak.
Tempranillo is usually blended with other grape varieties, being low in both acid level and sugar content. It is the major component of the well-known and excellent Rioja wines. Its wines can be consumed when young, but are considered at their best when aged, especially when aged in oak.

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Touriga Nacional is often considered to be Portugal's finest grape, and is a major component in the production of Port. Also known as Mortágua, it is unusually small, and give very low yields. It is being used these days more and more to produce table wine, particularly in the Däo region of Portugal.

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Zinfandel, often known simply as "Zin," this black grape is used mostly in California to produce wines all over the colour and flavour spectrum. From the traditional spicy red, to dry and sweet "White Zins," even late harvest desert wines and ports. It is generally used as a single varietal, and more and more, there are some fantastic offerings of this grape at the medium price level. In Italy, the grape Primitivo has been found to be a genetic cousin of Zinfandel, and they are now believed to be clones of the same grape, originally from Croatia where it is known as Crljenak Ka&suml;telanski.

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Zweigelt is a red wine grape variety developed in 1922, at the Federal Insitiute for Viticulture and Pomology at Klosterneuburg, Austria, by Fritz Zweigelt (who was later to become the director of the institute). It was a crossing of Blaufränkisch and St. Laurent. It is not the most widely-grown red grape variety in Austria, as well as having some presence in Canada's vineyards.

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White

Albariño or Alvarinho from both Spain and Northern Portugal is a grape used in making some of the Iberian Peninsula's most popular white wine. It produces a light wine, with high acidity. It is notoriously hard to ripen, and produced a good amount of pips, which can give a certain amount of bitterness. It is most notably grown in Galicia in the north west of Spain, most famously in the Rías Baixas DO.

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Aligoté, the second grape of white Burgundy. It has its own AOC of Bourgogne Aligoté, and due to its tart acidity, it is traditionally used with Cassis to make the cocktail kir.

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Auxerrois. Sharing its name with the regional name for the red grape Malbec in Cahors, this is possibly the most important white grape in Alsace. Not to be confused also with Auxerrois Gris, which is actually Pinot Gris. Auxerrois is also widely grown in Germany.

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Chardonnay is a green-skinned white grape, believed to be named after the village of Chardonnay in the Mâconnais where Pouilly-Fuissé is produced. When aged in oak it produced full, smokey wine, with vanilla caramel and butter flavours. Without oak ageing it makes dry, minerally wine, typical of areas such as Chablis. A major component in Champagne, it loves cool climates, and can loose its generous acidity if not picked at just the right time.

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Chasselas is a white grape grown to come extant in France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand, and especially Switzerland, where its most popular synonym is Fendant. A particular favourite of James Joyce. It generally produces very dry and fruity wine, that matches well with Sauvignon in the Loire Valley. It possibly the oldest known grape variety, grown up to 5000 years ago in Egypt.

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Chenin Blanc, originally a Loire white grape famous there for sweet botrytized wines, and firm acidic dry wines, it has found new popularity all over the new world. Most notably in South Africa where it is locally known as Steen. It tends to produce wine with "wet straw" aromas, and is quite acidic when young.

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Colombard is used widely in North America, where it is called French Colombard in blends where is it used for "backbone" in a wine. In its traditional home of France, it is used widely, again in blends in Gascony and the ever popular Languedoc. It is also a major componant in the production of Brandy, especially in Armagnac.

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Folle Blanche, also known as Picpoule and Gros Plant, produces very acidic wine, which makes it more suitable for distillation, and is a traditional variety of the regions of Cognac and Armagnac. These days, old Folle Blanche vines are being relaced with its hybrid disease resistant offspring, Bacco 22 A.

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Furmint. A vitis vinifera grape grown widely across eastern Europe, but keeps its most famous home in Hungary, it is used to make dry white wine, and of course, the famous Tokaji dessert wines from the region of Tokaji-Hegyalja. The name Furmint comes from the word "forment" for the wheat-gold colour of the juice it produces. It is a late ripening grape that is particularly susceptible to botrytis.

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Gewürztraminer translates into "Spice from Tramin", which refers to wine from Tramin in northern Italy where the grape had a particularly spicy flavour. It his now notoriously grown in Alsace (where it can achieve Grand Cru status) Germany, and to a lesser extent in North America. The wine is very full bodied and bares a strong smell of petroleum and lychees. It usually produces a lot of alcohol, and tends to suit spicy food like curry.

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Marsanne is a less mainstream grape, often blended with Roussane in the northern Rhone where it is most famous. It is also grown, to an even smaller extent in Australia, and Switzerland where it is known as Ermitage. The wine it produces tends to have a strong aroma with certain nutty characteristics.

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Muscat should not be regarded as one grape, but rather the parent name for a whole family of up to 200 different grapes. Various different forms of Muscat are grown in virtually every wine producing country in the world, and for a range of different products from raisins, through sherry, to Metaxa (a Greek Brandy), to Australian fortified wine. Some of the most famous variations of Muscat are; Muscato Giallo from Italy; Moscatel de Setúbal from Portugal, Orange Muscat from Australia.

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Muscadelle, despite the similar name, and style of wine it produces, is unrelated to the huge Muscat family. It was in the past a minor component of Bordeaux's sweet wines, which are not dominated by Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc. Commonly called Tokay in Australia, and Sauvignon Vert in North America.

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Palomino is grown widely in Jerez in Spain, and is best known for the production of Sherry. It has been split into three varieties in Spain, Palomino Fino, Palomino Basto and Palomino de Jerez, of which Palomino Fino is the most important for its frequent use in dry Sherry. It tends to be low in acidity and sugar, which will cause huge problems in the production of a passable table wine, but makes it ideal for oxidisation.

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Pedro Ximénez is grown in certain regions of Spain, and is generally used in the production of intensely sweet Sherry. The wine is made extra sweet, to the point of being more of a dark dessert wine than a Sherry by drying the grapes with the Suns heat, which concentrated the sugars in the grapes, and produces a thick black wine with a distinct taste of raisins. We at Mitchell's recommend that you try it poured over a dish of good vanilla ice cream.

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Pinot Blanc or Weisser Burgunder in Germany and Pinot Bianco in Italy, is used, mostly in Alsace to make a very fresh varietal white wine. Typically dry with apple and citrus fruit flavour.

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Pinot Gris is a vitis vinifera grape, that is known by many names all over Europe; Tokay Pinot Gris; Pinot Grigio; Ruländer (Austria and Germany); Malvoisie (Loire Valley); Auxerrois Gris (Alsace); Fromentau (, France); to name but a few. Believed to be a mutant version of Pinot Noir, it is a recognisable gray-ish fruit, which is where it gets its name. It is now grown in most wine producing countries, of both the old and new world, and is often picked when botrytized for making dessert wines.

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Pinot Grigio; see Pinot Gris

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Prosecco is an white grape grown in Veneto in Italy, and lends its name to the sparkling wine it produces. It is a late ripening grape, which led to its use in dry sparkling (spumante) and semi-sparkling (frizzante) wines. The cocktail Bellini, a mix of peach juice and sparkling wine, should be made with Processo.

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Riesling is a variety grown most famously in Alsace and Germany, where it is suited to the relatively cool climate. Riesling is said to take on the personality of the place its grown more than any other white grape. It is a particularly versatile grape that can flourish in cool slopes or harsh heat. And can produce some of the best whites in a massive range of styles. From dry Alsatian white, to intensely sweet Canadian Ice Wine.

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Roussanne, is a difficult grape to grow, as it is highly vulnerable to mildew. It gives very unpredictable yields, and tends to ripen very late, or completely unevenly. It is originally from the Rhône Valley, it is almost always used in blends especially with Marsanne, and it is also permitted in the production of Chateauneuf du Pape.

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Sauvignon Blanc probably originated in Bordeaux, where along with Cabernet Franc, it is believed to be a parent grape of Cabernet Sauvignon. It also takes a home in the Loire valley where it is grown in Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé and Touraine. Depending on climate, its flavours can range from aggressively grassy to sweetly tropical, and it is highly susceptible to noble rot, which makes it perfect for the production of Sauternes' sweet wines. It has been grown with massive success across the New World, especially in New Zealand, who are almost setting the standard for Sauvignon Blanc these days.

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Sémillon bares very thin skins, which leaves it very open to botrytis cinerea or noble rot, which consumes the water in a grape and leave little other than pulp and suger. This makes Semillon a vital component in the production of sweet wines in France. Especially in Sauternes and Barsac, where it tends to be the dominant variety. It is also used to make dry white across the New World, especially in Chile and Australia. In the 19th century, Semillon took up 90% of vines in South Africa, where it is known as Wyndruif ­ "Wine Gape."

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Silvaner, also known as Oesterreicher, reached Germany in the 17th century, wehre until the 70's it took up 30% of wine production. These days it is grown in infinitely less quantities across the regions of Alsace, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

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Trebbiano, known as Ugni Blanc in France, it the most commonly grown white grape in Italy where it accounts for about a third of all their white wines, and is cited in 80 their regional DOCs.

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Verdicchio is typically grown in the Marche region of Italy and give high acidity and a uniquely nutty flavour. It is also used to make Sparkling Wine.

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Vernaccia is an ancient grape and is grown famously near the hill town of San Gimignano in Tuscany. It has been grown for many centuries, and possibly even Millennia by the Etruscans, before the rise of Rome.

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Viognier. This grape's typical low yield has ensured its place among the lesser-known grape varieties. However it remains a vital part of the cépage of the Rhone Valley, and to a lesser extent, the Languedoc. It is now getting a small following in Australia and North America. This grape faced near extinction in the 60's but has seen a steady increase in use over the latter half of the 20th century. The wine it produces tends to give powerful fruit aromas, and the deep colour suggests a sweet wine, however the wine is almost always quite dry. This is an underrated gem of a grape.

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