Grenache Blanc

Identity

Grenache Blanc is not a cousin of Grenache Noir. It is the same grape.

A colour mutation is a somatic accident: a cell loses the ability to produce skin pigments, the bud that grows from it gives a shoot with pale berries, and the grower who spots it takes cuttings. The genetic profile stays that of Grenache Noir — same markers, same variety in the geneticist's sense.

And yet the cahiers des charges treat it as a distinct variety, with its own yields and its own caps. That is a useful reminder of what a grape variety is in a regulatory text: a category of use, not a taxon.

In the vineyard

Bud burst and ripeness mid-season, in Grenache Noir's wake.

Its constraint lies in the glass rather than in the vineyard, and it is clear-cut: its acidity is naturally low. That "calls for precise picking to avoid flabby whites" — a narrow window, where waiting a week too long costs the wine its freshness.

It is the structuring fault of the whites of the Midi, and Grenache Blanc is its most widespread example.

In the glass

Broad whites, low in acid, medium to full in body. The two descriptors on this entry — aniseed and pear — are readings of that register, not quotations.

Its use follows directly from its fault: it is blended. With Clairette, which brings perfume but no acidity either; with Roussanne, which brings backbone. A Grenache Blanc on its own is a wine you must know how to pick on the day; in a blend, the other varieties make up for its lateness.

Where it is named

In the Roussillon, at Banyuls, a principal variety — that is where it matters most, alongside the other Grenaches.

In the southern Rhône, where Châteauneuf-du-Pape's specification names it among the permitted varieties.

And in Provence, at Palette, as an accessory for the whites.

Three colours, one variety

This corpus publishes all three: Grenache Noir, Grenache Blanc and Grenache Gris. That is three pages for a single variety, and at Banyuls all three appear together in the same blend.

It is worth saying plainly: an appellation that permits Grenache in its three colours is not permitting three varieties, it is permitting three uses of one. Lledoner Pelut, the family's fourth page, is a mutation of the same Grenache Noir — not of colour, but of hairiness.