Wine Consultant Marc Soucy Writes about Wine here at www ...

If you read my post from March 28, you already know where we are going.....

...Into that bizarre place where words mean something different than what one would expect, where the same word can mean almost anything...  ...We are heading into:  The Wine Twilight Zone. Yes, again.

Here are a few more hits. As before, I will focus and develop these points in future posts:

1.  Zinfandel.  Typically, a fruit forward, spicy red wine that is the emblem of native California wine making. "White Zinfandel" is a blush wine, made from mass produced Zinfandel grapes, and cut with other, lesser grapes. The grapes are pressed, and the run off has some color from Zinfandel's red skins, making it pink, or as they call it, "blush". This should not be confused with dryer Rosés that are produced using more care. See my previous post about Domaine Houchart Rosé for more about these Rosés.

Zinfandel's European heredity links it to the grape Primitivo, grown mainly in the Puglia region of Italy. This successful variety has also been traced further back. For a while, it was rumored to be related to the Plavac Mali grape, from Croatia, but since then we've discovered that they are only related, not identical. Primitivo (and therefore Zinfandel) has, through genetic testing, been traced to a lesser grown Croatian variety, Crljenak kaštelanski, a name I can only guess how to pronounce. The fact that Zinfandel is so successful in California, and Primitivo has sort of "jumped on the bandwagon" in wine markets, sometimes even putting on the label "Italy's Zinfandel", we see how the humblest of grapes can become quite successful in the right hands.

2.  Syrah vs Petite Syrah. Shiraz or Syrah? Syrah or Sirah?  OK ok....  Here we go.

Syrah is the highly prized and successful variety used in France's northern Rhone appellations, such as Côte Rotie, Hermitage, and Crozes Hermitage. The grape has been widely planted in Australia, and in the 19th century, was named "Shiraz" there, after the city in Iran where it was rumored to have come from. That turned out to be wrong, but the name stuck. We are now stuck with two names for the same grape. Nowadays, the name tends to indicate the style of the wine.

But Petite Sirah (the correct spelling, BTW)?  Petite Sirah was what Californians named a new grape they had brought in from the Rhone Valley in France. It was actually the Durif grape, but they didn't have records indicating that, and so gave it their own name. Is it genetically related to Syrah, though? Well, it seems so. Durif is believed to be a cross between Syrah and the lesser know Perlousin grape, and may have been created by accident, when the pollen of Syrah crossed with Perlousin flowers on their vines. A Professor Durif named it after himself when he discovered it growing in a vineyard.

3.  Pinot Gris --original Alsatian (French) name--  The grey/tan colored relative of Pinot Noir, used to produce full bodied white wines. Other names for this grape:

Tokay -- name used in Alsace ("Tokay d'Alsace") until Hungary protested that their prized dessert wine, Tokaji (pronounce almost the same), was being "cheapened" by the Alsatian usage. In the spirit of mutual viticultural respect, the French recently decided to drop the use of "Tokay", and always call it "Pinot Gris". You still see the name on bottles here and here, however. By the way, Australian wine makers create a sweet wine called "Tokay", but this is their own name for the Muscadelle grape.  Go figure. 

Malvoisie -- Same grape. Name used in Switzerland

Rulander -- Same grape. Name used in Germany for sweeter wines

Grauburgunder -- Same grape. Name used in Germany for dry wines

and surprise:  of course, Pinot Grigio is what they call it in Italy.

4. Just to add another twist, the more obscure French grapes that do appear in a number of "country" wines in the western half of France: "Folle Blanche" (Western France), "Gros Plant" (mouth of Loire river), and "Picpoul" (Languedoc) are all actually all the same grape!  This grape is widely used in the creation of distilled brandy-like spirits, as well as wine.

This little, somewhat exhausting exercise is meant to highlight the confusing side of wine grape nomenclature, and to dramatize just how huge the world of wine grapes really is. Our language doesn't always help in this regard.  We owe all this confusion to the fact that wine making goes back much further than any national boundary, or local regionalism. When people made wine only for people living within a day's horse ride, they didn't care so much what people a thousand miles away thought, or called anything. We in America sometimes find it hard to understand this basic fact, since our country is still so young, and communication and travel are so much easier than they were many centuries ago.

It really is that simple.

Thanks for having the patience to read this!

Marc Soucy