When wine people use the term "wine variety" they refer to the variety of the grape used to make the wine. Wine styles refer to the overall category of wine, sparkling wine, red table wine, white table wine, dessert wines, fortified wines and so on.
The major varieties such as Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are household names, but what about all the others?
Wine variety expert Steve de Long in the index to his Wine Grape Varietal Table estimates that there are more than 10,000 distinct wine varieties. The true figure will never be known, new varieties are being produced and some obscure varieties are slipping into extinction. The naming of the commercially important varieties is systematic but at the other end of the scale naming is haphazard and dependent on local tradition.
Why Does it Matter to the Wine Maker
The best wines are made from grapes with the ideal balance of sugar, acidity, tannins and flavouring compounds. Wine grape growers can achieve this when the temperature over the three or four weeks before vintage are relatively stable at about 20 degrees Celsius. This requirement determines just how the climate of the vineyard and the grape variety interact.
Early ripening varieties such as Pinot Noir do best in cool climates. In warmer climates these varieties would ripen at the height of summer and an unbalanced wine is the probable result.
Later ripening varieties such as grenache tend to ripen after the fierce heat of summer in warmer areas, but may not ripen at all in cooler climates.
Selecting the right wine grape variety for the micro-climate of each vineyard is a major and ongoing task for viticulturists.
Why Does it Matter to the Consumer
- Obviously wines made from different wines have different flavours. Some wines varieties are relatively neutral in flavour while others, such as Sauvignon Blanc, Gewurztraminer and Gamay have distinctive flavours.
- In the new world wines are most often named after the grape variety that they are made from, and that is how they are marketed.
- Consumers can find similar wines because of the varietal naming convention. There are thousands of brands of wine and many brands have several varieties. Varietal names can provide signpost through this maze.
- Some grape varieties are believed to make wines with more pronounced health giving effects. For example the red wine variety Tannat is believed to be rich in compounds which are beneficial to cardiovascular health.
Where Do New Varieties Come From?
Since the dawn of time farmers have been selecting the best domestic plants and animals to form the basis of the next generation. Thus better breeds, strains of varieties emerged and evolved to suit particular conditions or needs. Over the past few centuries this process has continued in a more scientific, methodical way.
Hybrids between varieties native to North America and Europe were bred as a way of avoiding the phylloxera pest.
In Australia the CSIRO has bred several new wine grape varieties for local conditions. Cienna, Tyrian and Tarrango are three such varieties. Other varieties arose by accident. Cynge Blanc is believed to be a white form of Cabernet Sauvignon that arose from a seedling in a vineyard in Western Australia. Shalistin is another white Cabernet Sauvignon variety, in this case arising from a sport or spontaneous mutation.
Wine Century Club
Just how many of these varieties have you tried? Some people have made it a hobby to record and total the varieties that they have tried. After tasting a hundred different varieties, wine lovers can join the Wine Century Club and receive a certificate to attest to their success.
Darby Higgs - Darby Higgs is a wine writer and webmaster based in Melbourne Australia. He is the Author of Emerging Varietal Wines of Australia: a guide ...
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