Wine Grape Varieties

George H. Kerridge, Allan J. Antcliff, George H Kerridge, Allan J Antcliff

• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Year: 1999
• Print ISBN: 9780643059825
• eBook ISBN: 9780643102903
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Agriculture
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This book describes 92 of the most popular wine grape varieties currently used by wine makers around the world plus some that may have a place in the future.

It builds on the earlier edition of Wine Grape Varieties of Australia, by including new varieties of grape and updating critical information.

The book enables readers to easily identify a particular variety using lavish colour photographs of the leaves, shoots, canes and fruit. Each grape variety is further described with a brief history, its current world plantings and the wines, including blends, that are manufactured from it.

Aleatico

Aleatico is an Italian variety which can be found in most areas of the country, with the most substantial plantings being in Tuscany and the island of Elba. It is also grown in Corsica and it is a minor variety in California with about 40 ha planted.

Aleatico is a vigorous variety with an upright habit of growth. It has medium, 3- to 5-lobed, plane and slightly rough leaves which are hairless above and below. The petiolar sinus is in the shape of a narrow lyre. Bunches are medium, more or less cylindrical and well filled to compact with medium, round berries with a heavy bloom and a muscat flavour. Although it is a different variety it is somewhat like a black form of Muscat a petits grains.

In Italy, Aleatico is used to make a sweet, red, muscat wine which is highly regarded. An unfortified sweet muscat wine with a bright, light red colour would be unusual in Australia, and could be a marketable product. However, Aleatico can be used to make white wines and fortified wines and could be tried as a substitute for Muscat a petits grains where there were problems with that variety.

Alvarelhao

Alvarelhao was recommended with Bastardo and Touriga by Mr F. de Castella, former Government Viticulturist in Victoria, for the production of port. However, in the variety classification used in the Douro Valley in Portugal, while Bastardo and Touriga arc rated very good, Alvarelhao is rated as only reasonable. Thus it is perhaps not surprising that less Alvarelhao than Touriga and Bastardo has been planted in Australia, there being a few small plantings in north-east Victoria and southern New South Wales only. There appears to be very little of this variety grown outside Portugal. It is not clear whether it is present in California as the variety imported from there as Alvarelhao proved to be Touriga.

Alvarelhao is a vigorous variety with a fairly upright habit of growth. The leaves are medium to large, rough, dark green, 3-to 5-lobed tending to fold inwards about the midrib and roll back at the edges, with some tufted hairs on the lower surface and a V-shaped petiolar sinus. Bunches are medium, conical and rather loose, with small, short elliptical berries.

Alvarelhao is low in colour and does not appear to have any particular virtues for either port or dry red wines.

Barbera

Barbera is the leading wine grape of Italy, grown mainly in Piedmont. Because of mixed plant ings the area is uncertain but the annual production is of the order of half a million tonnes. It is used in wines of controlled appellation, sometimes alone and sometimes mixed with other varieties. In Argentina there are about 1000 ha of Barbera. Plantings in California increased sharply from about 1970 reaching 8600 ha in 1977 and declining to 4100 ha by 1992. Only a few small plantings have been made in Australia.

Barbera is a reasonably vigorous variety although its rather slender shoots and open foliage tend to give it a sparse appearance. The leaves, which are easily damaged by wind, are of medium size, plane, slightly rough, rather deeply 5-lobed and hairy on the lower surface. The petiolar sinus is of a narrow lyre shape, often closed and sometimes with partly overlapping edges. Bunches are up to medium in size, conical to irregular in shape, sometimes winged and well filled to compact. Berries are medium, oval and intensely coloured with a heavy bloom. The long, green bunch stalks make it easy to harvest by hand and it is one of the most satisfactory varieties for mechanical harvesting.

Wines from Barbera should have good colour, tannin and acidity, and a distinctive varietal character which, being unfamiliar, may not be immediately acceptable in Australia. In Italy it is mostly used for dry red wines, but sweet red and sparkling red wines are also made.

Bastardo

Bastardo is considered one of the better port varieties in Portugal although it is not as widely grown as Touriga or Tinta Amarella. It is also grown, to the extent of 140 ha, under the name of Trousseau, in the Jura region in the east of France. It is probably one of the ‘port sorts’ of which 188 ha are recorded in South Africa and there may be a little in California and South America, but not enough to be recorded separately. The exact area in Australia is uncertain. There are 26 ha in South Australia as Cabernet Gros, a little in north east Victoria and nearby in New South Wales called Bastardo, and some plantings called Touriga in New South Wales are also Bastardo.

Bastardo is a fairly vigorous variety with a spreading habit of growth. It has medium to rather small, lightish green leaves, entire to slightly 3-lobed, smooth above with a few cobwebby hairs below. The petiolar sinus is more or less V-shaped, often narrow with almost parallel sides. The bunches are rather small, generally cylindrical, with small, round, soft berries with a heavy bloom. The fruit ripens early and attains a high sugar concentration which increases even further as the berries wilt.

Under most Australian conditions Bastardo is best suited for fortified wines. It does not provide much colour in the wine but will combine with other varieties which can provide colour and flavour.

Bianco d’Alessano

Bianco d’Alessano is a late ripening white wine grape variety from the Puglia region of southeast Italy. There are 11 000 ha of this variety planted in the province of Taranto near Bari.

It is a vigorous variety which was one of the latest ripening of all of the white wine varieties in the grape germplasm collection at the CSIRO Division of Horticulture at Merbein. The newly opened buds are large and downy with carmine colouration. The young shoot tips are white in appearance with carmine edges on the young leaves. Adult leaves are large, orbicular, 3- to 5-lobed, glabrous, dull green on the upper surface and covered with felted down on the lower. The petiolar sinus is a narrow lyre and the leaf is lightly undulating. The teeth are irregular in size and convex on a wide base. The petiole is medium in length, hairy and rose coloured. The bunch is conical/cylindrical, compact, large and winged. The berry is greenish white, round, regular and of medium size. The juice is sweet and neutral in flavour. Canes are medium in length, uniform light brown in colour and striated.

Bianco d’Alessano produces yields of about 30 tonnes per hectare in the warm irrigated regions of Australia. The wines however tend to lack character and have been given only average scores by tasting panels.

Biancone

Biancone has the distinction of giving the highest yield commercially of any variety in Australia. There are only 57 ha, almost all in the Riverland area of South Australia, but the average yield regularly approaches 30 tonnes per hectare, nearly half as much again as that of the next highest yielding variety, Doradillo, under similar conditions. The variety comes from Corsica, where its excellent production has led to one of its names being Pagadebiti, literally ‘payer of debts’. Apart from isolated vines known as Green Doradillo or Late Doradillo the variety has been called White Grenache in Australia. Although the Grenache Blanc of the south of France, of which more than 12 000 ha have been planted, is the white form of the true Grenache, there have also been small areas of Biancone grown under the name of Grenache Blanc Productif. It was probably imported into Australia under this name. The Biancone of the Isle of Elba is thought to be the same variety but it does not appear to have become established in any other countries.

Biancone is a vigorous and rather upright growing variety. It has medium, clear green leaves, usually deeply 5-lobed, which in the Murray Valley are hairless on the lower surface, although in Europe they are described as having cobwebby hairs. The bunches are medium to large, conical and well filled, with medium, round berries often flattened at the stalk end. The berries are firmly attached and have a soft texture but tough skin.

In the Riverland, Biancone would be regarded as a variety for distillation or the production of bulk wine but there is some evidence that it can produce a distinctive dry white wine in cooler areas.

Bonvedro

Bonvedro is the Portuguese name of this variety, which is also grown in north eastern Spain as Cuatendra. It is possible that it also occurred in France as an obscure variety and perhaps came into Australia in a large collection such as that of Busby. In this way it could have become confused with Carignan, the name generally used for Bonvedro in Australia. There may also have been confusion with another variety from north-eastern Spain, Miguel de Arco, as the vines grown under this name in Australia also seem to be Bonvedro. In all there are about 57 ha of Bonvedro in Australia, mostly in South Australia with a little in New South Wales and Victoria.

Bonvedro is a vigorous and rather erect growing variety. It has medium to large, 3- to 5-lobed leaves which are rough and undulating, the undulation often causing the basal lobes to overlap leaving a ‘peephole’ in the petiolar sinus. The leaves are a somewhat greyish mid green, with dense white hairs on the lower surface. Bunches are medium, conical and compact with a woody stalk. Berries are medium, short oval, with a heavy bloom, soft flesh and a tough skin.

Wines made from Bonvedro in Australia, while having a pleasant varietal character, have suffered by comparison with wines from other varieties which have more colour and tannin. Increasing interest in lighter red wines may encourage a reappraisal of this position.

Bourboulenc

Bourboulenc is a recommended variety throughout the Mediterranean region of France and is found mainly in the lower valley of the Rhone. Although it is an approved variety for such wines of controlled appellation as Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Cotes du Rhone, the area of Bourboulenc in France declined from 703 ha to 383 ha betwee...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgment
• Introduction
• Wine grape varieties
• Wine grape varieties new to this edition
• Synonyms
• Variety collection
• Glossary
• References