Caladoc

Identity

Caladoc is a crossing made in 1958 by Paul Truel at the INRAE domain of Vassal, between Grenache Noir and Cot.

It is the most recent variety in this corpus, and the only one whose year, author and institution are all known. Vassal is the national ampelographic collection — the conservatory where France keeps its thousands of varieties — and most twentieth-century French crossings came out of it.

What a crossing sets out to solve

Its two parents state the intention.

Grenache Noir is the southern variety par excellence: drought-resistant, generous in degree, and — as its entry notes — sometimes prone to coulure, those flowers that fail to set and the crop that suffers for it.

Cot, which Cahors calls Malbec, brings colour and tannin.

Caladoc inherits good resistance to grey rot and a balanced structure — medium acidity, medium to high tannin, medium to full body. Pl@ntGrape recommends short pruning and goblet training.

In the vineyard

Bud burst and ripeness mid-season, medium vigour. Nothing extreme: it is the profile of a variety designed to be easy, which is generally the point of a crossing from that period.

In the glass

A medium to full structure, with no marked character. This entry's single descriptor is a reading of that register, not a quotation — Pl@ntGrape names none.

That is consistent with its standing: a blending variety created to bring regularity and colour, not an aromatic signature.

Where it is named

At Côtes de Provence, an accessory variety.

It is the only published appellation in this corpus to cite it — which is notable, because French appellations rarely admit modern crossings. Caladoc has made its career mostly outside them, in vin de pays and IGP, where the regulatory frame is looser.

What this encyclopedia documents elsewhere throws light on that: a PDO wine must come exclusively from Vitis vinifera, which Caladoc does — it is an intraspecific crossing, two vinifera. Nothing excludes it from appellations; the appellations simply did not want it.

What this entry does not say

Its planted area, for which no source opened here gives a figure. Its aroma profile, which Pl@ntGrape does not name. And its place among the other French crossings of the period — Marselan N, which the Corbières specification admits as a variety of interest for adaptation, has no entry here, and no source opened for this page establishes its parentage.