Pinot Noir

Difficult to grow, difficult to vinify but still producers across the globe are attracted to this temperamental grape variety, tempted to try matching the classic style of Burgundy's greatest red wines.

ORIGINS
Burgundy and Champagne. Also used in some of the light reds and roses of the Loire, and the red wine of Alsace.

WHERE ELSE IS IT GROWN
California, Oregon, Australia, New Zealand, a little in South Africa. Quite important in central Europe - southern Germany, Switzerland, and points east - but still fairly rare along the Mediterranean. Anybody making sparkling wine by the traditional champagne method is likely to use some Pinot.

TASTING NOTES
In youth, it can possess light aromas of red fruits, typically raspberry, strawberry, maraschino cherry. In parts of California and Australia, it also has a faint note of coffee bean or mocha. Nearly always has an element of meatiness - beef stock in young wines, shading to well-hung game as it ages, overlaid in the very best with the other-worldly pungency of black truffle. Classically (or notoriously, depending on your taste) mature wines can also display a distinctly rank smell, politely described as "barnyardy", but really referring to what you might accidentally put your foot in as you walk throught the barnyard.
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Cabernet Sauvignon

Its pedigree is firmly founded in the gravelly soils of the Medoc, in the heart of Bordeaux. The king of red grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon has conquered vineyards across the world without losing the classic character that brought it such renown.

ORIGINS
Bordeaux, specifically the left bank of the river Gironde, from the north of the Medoc down to the Graves. (On the right bank, it tends to play second fiddle to Merlot.)

WHERE ELSE IS IT GROWN
Just about everywhere, although it has not made significant inroads into the cooler climates of northern Europe.

TASTING NOTES
In warm climates, almost any of the purple-skinned fruits - classically blackcurrants (perhaps most startlingly so in the best wines of Chile), but also black plums, brambles, damsons, etc. Often has a distinct note of fresh mint or even eucalyptus, especially in parts of Australia and Chile. Cooler climates can create a whiff of bitterness in it, often uncannily like chopped green pepper. Oak Treatments generally emphasise a mineral austerity in the wine, likened in Bordeaux to the smell of cigarboxes, cedarwood or - most recognizably - pencil shavings. With several years' bottle-age, it can take on aromas such as well-hung game, plum tomatoes, warm leather, dark chocolate, even soft Indian spices like cardamom, while the primary fruit begins to taste more like preserved fruit.
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Merlot

Historically used in the blended reds of Bordeaux. Merlot's fame is founded on its partnership with Cabernet Sauvignon. Its reputation as a solo performer has been earned more recently.

ORIGINS
Bordeaux, especially the Libournais on the right bank of the Gironde, which includes St-Emilion and Pomerol.

WHERE ELSE IS IT GROWN
Throughout central and eastern Europe, from Switzerland to Bulgaria. United States. Argentina. Some in Chile, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.

TASTING NOTES
At its ripest, soft purple fruits such as blackberries and black plums. In cooler climates, it can have a distinct vegetal streak in it, like green beans or asparagus. If the sun gets to it, there may be a suggestion of dried fruit such as raisins or even fruitcake. Rounded out with oak in the best wines of Pomerol and California, it can also take on a textural richness that has overtones o melted chocolate or possibly Turkish Delight.
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Gamay

The once classic grape variety that has stayed close to home, Gamay is synonymous with Beaujolais, that light, fresh, strawberry-fruity red that is designed to be drunk young and lively.

ORIGINS
Beaujolais.

WHERE ELSE IS IT GROWN
Burgundy, Loire, Rhone. Switzerland and other central European countries. Minute amounts in California.

TASTING NOTES
At its deliriously ripest, fistfuls of pulpy wild strawberries. When very young (as Nouveau, particularly) it can have a synthetic smell like boiled sweets, reinforced by the crunchiness of its acidity in the mouth. That, and related aromas like peardrops, banana flavouring and bubblegum are all fermentation smells accentuated by the fact that no air gets into it while it is vinifying. Some of the richer, meatier cur wines can take on the attributes of mature Pinot Noir after five or six years.
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Shiraz / Syrah

Whether recognized as the French grape of the northern Rhone, Syrah, or in its popular guise as Shiraz, in Australia, this grape remains one of the noblest red varieties, fabled for its ability to age majestically for decades.

ORIGINS
Northern Rhone.

WHERE ELSE IS IT GROWN
Australia. A little in California and South Africa. Is of some significance in Switzerland.

TASTING NOTES
Can smell of almost any dark purple fruit - blackberries, blackcurrants, black cherries, damsons, plums. Freshly ground black pepper in the northern Rhone. Exotic flavours can include liquorice, ginger, dark chocolate, often a distinct floral note, too, like violets. Cool topnote of mint characteristic in parts of South Australia. Aged wines can take on something of the gaminess of old Pinot Noir.
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Grenache

Established as a vital ingredient to spice up the famous wines of Rioja and Chateau-neuf-du-Pape, the much-travlled, overworked Grenache is quietly developing a fashionable status. Discerning winemakers have recognized its worth as a varietal.

ORIGINS
Almost certainly Spain. (A Sardinian theory has its adherents, mostly in Sardinia.)

WHERE ELSE IS IT GROWN
Throughout the Midi, southern Rhone and Provence. California, Australia, northwest Africa.

TASTING NOTES
Usually marries a lightish red fruit - redcurrants, strawberries, raspberries, morello cherries - to a spiciness like black pepper or, quite often, ground ginger. Some times a floral violet-like note as well. In its fiercest manifestations in the hotter parts of Australia, it can be tarry, chocolatey, liquoricey, like the most concentrated Shiraz, often supported by a distinct sweetness, so that the wines imitate the structure of vintage port.
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Chardonnay

From its homeland in Burgundy, Chardonnay has travelled the world to become the most fashionable and sought-after of white varieties. This chameleon of grapes bows to the whim of the winemaker, offering a diversity of styles to appeal to all palates.

ORIGINS
Almost all of the white wines of Burgundy, from Chablis down to Beaujolais. Champagne (where it makes up 100 per cent of wines labeled blanc de blancs). May appear as varietally labelled vin de pays across the south, especially Languedoc, and also in the Loire.

WHERE ELSE IS IT GROWN
Wherever the vine will grow.

TASTING NOTES
Light and unoaked (eg. Chablis) - tart apple, lemon, sometimes pear. Lightly oaked (eg. Rully, St-Veran) - melting butter, baked apple, nutmeg, oatmeal. Heavily oaked (eg. Meursault, classic Australian Chardonnay) - vanilla, lemon curd, butterscotch, praline, bacon fat, woodsmoke.
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Chenin Blanc

Chenin Blanc's wide stylistic repertoire has made it the focal grape variety in the central vineyards of the Loire valley. Put through its paces in Vouvray, it runs the gamut of dry to sweet, and sparkling, wines.

ORIGINS
The central Loire valley - Anjou-Saumur and Touraine.

WHERE ELSE IS IT GROWN
South Africa. Also California, Australia, New Zealand, and a little in Argentina.

TASTING NOTES
When young and dry, tart green apple and pear, occasionally something a little more exotic (passion fruit) in a good year. Mineral, even metallic, hardness on the palate, though often with paradoxical underlying hint of honey. Can have a dry nuttiness (walnuts) and an indeterminately damp smell, like old newspaper or wet woolens. Sweeter styles get progressively more honeyed without losing the tingly, appley acidity woven through them.
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Sauvignon Blanc

The rape of the famous Loire whites, Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume, Sauvignon also brought New Zealand to the attention of the wine world, with a fruit cocktail of a wine, that proved the versatility of this variety.

ORIGINS
Bordeaux. Where it is nearly always blended with Semillon (and perhaps a drop of Muscadelle). The upper Loire valley is where France's top varietal Sauvignons are based, and less exalted wines are made further west along the Loire in Touraine.

WHERE ELSE IS IT GROWN
Fairly widespread, but particularly important in New Zealand, and somewhat less so in the United States, Australia and South Africa. Isolated plantings in the warmer Languedoc and northern Spain are beginning to prove surprisingly successful.

TASTING NOTES
Practically the whole gamut of fruit flavours, ranging from sour green fruits like gooseberry and tart apple or pear to astonishingly exotic notes such as Charentais melon, passion fruit and mango. It very often has a precise nose of blackcurrants. Vegetable flavours can loom large too. Green peas, asparagus and seet red peppers often crop up in New Zealand examples. Then there is a curiously pungent animal quality in many cool-climate, especially, Loire, versions that is often compared to cat's pee, or even to male sweat. If you're lucky, that fugitive wisp of faintly acrid smoke is there as well.
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Semillon

To many producers, Semillon suffers a lack of individuality that has destined it to be blended with more fashionable varieties. Yet as the source of rich, golden, honeyed Sauternes, and the unique, aged dry white of Australia, Semillon is second to none.

ORIGINS
Bordeaux.

WHERE ELSE IS IT GROWN
Australia, Chile, Argentina, a little in South Africa and California, and isolated pockets of southern France.

TASTING NOTES
When dry, lime-peel, exotic honey, sometimes has a little of Sauvignon's gooseberry too. Often has a hard mineral purity, even slightly metallic. In the Hunter Valley, deceptive woodiness even when unoaked, turning to burnt toast with age. Blended with Chardonnay, lemon-and-lime squash seems to be the main flavour. When subjected to botrytis for sweet wines, can take on a whole range of exotic fruit characters, but classically has overripe peach or apricot flavour, barley-sugar, honey allied to a vanilla-custard, creme burlee richness from oak ageing. Australian sweet Semillon can have an emphatically medicinal tinge to it as well.
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Riesling

Germany's noble white grape variety, Riesling, is a versatile performer. It is prized in northern Europe and the southern hemisphere for its ability to produce classic sweet whites as well as impeccable dry wines.

ORIGINS
Germany.

WHERE ELSE IS IT GROWN
Alsace. Australia and New Zealand. Austria and northern Italy. Some in the United States and Canada.

TASTING NOTES
Nearly always has both the scent and taste of fresh lime, whether bitter zests or sweetened juice. Riper German ones can have softer fruit like ripe peach or apricot, as well as a gentle floral aroma. In Alsace, there is a very austere mineral quality in the wines and a texture on the palate like sharpened steel. The whiff of petrol (or gasoline) flowing from the pump generally comes with age, although some Australian wines can display it quite young.
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Gewurztraminer

Unique among the white varieties,Gewurztraminer is very much a love-it-or-hate-it grape. Once tasted, never forgotten its ostentatious, scented, rich character has made it the grape forever associated with Alsace.

ORIGINS
For the Gewurztraminer specifically, possibly Alsace. For its less intoxicatingly scented forebear, Traminer, probably the south Tyrol area of northern Italy.

WHERE ELSE IS IT GROWN
Apart from Alsace, it has important bases in Germany and Austria, less so in Spain and eastern Europe. Experimental plantings dotted around the southern hemisphere, and also the United States, particularly the Pacific Northwest.

TASTING NOTES
The list is well-nigh endless. Fruits are usually an eerily precise imitation of ripely juicy lychees, together with overripe peach or nectarine when the flesh is just starting to turn mushy. Some authorities dispute the spice connection evoked in the German word Gewurz, but there is nearly always a good sprinkling of ground ginger and often cinnamon, occasionally the scent of the whole cloves and even a dusting of white pepper. Flowers are very much in evidence too - violets and rose-petals (often reminiscent of attar of roses, as in Turkish Delight) - and then there is a whole range of scented bathroom products - aromatic bath salts, perfumed soap, talcum powder. Gewurz from regions other than Alsace may present a toned-down version of all that, which may come as a relief to some.
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