Carignan Blanc

Identity

Carignan Blanc is the white mutation of Carignan Noir, grown on small areas in the Roussillon.

It is the fifth family of mutations this corpus publishes, after the Grenaches, the Terrets, Clairette Rose and the teinturier Gamays. At this point the observation imposes itself: the whites of the Midi are largely mutations of its reds.

Grenache Blanc and Gris, Terret Blanc and Gris, Clairette Rose, Piquepoul Blanc, Carignan Blanc — seven of the southern whites published here are colour mutations. That is not a vineyard coincidence, it is the trace of a country that planted red first and then spotted, plot by plot, the shoots that came up pale.

In the vineyard

Late bud burst and late ripeness — Carignan's profile, from which it inherits everything.

Pl@ntGrape gives it "high and regular fertility allowing short pruning, like Carignan Noir, its parent variety". Once again the phrase that says the mutation has not been studied in its own right: it is described by its stock.

Its vigour is not filled in. Empty field, "not established".

In the glass

Medium acidity, medium to full body, no tannin. A white of structure, without excess.

This entry's single descriptor is a reading of that register, not a quotation.

What it brings to a Roussillon blend follows from its late ripeness: picked after the others, it keeps a little freshness where Grenache Blanc and Clairette have lost theirs. It is the same function as Terret Blanc in the Languedoc.

Where it is named

At Corbières and Banyuls, an accessory variety in both.

What it gets confused with

Carignan Noir, of which it is the mutation and which it never quite leaves: the same calendar, the same fertility, the same management. The only difference is the colour of the berry — and, as always with a colour mutation, the appellation's law, which counts them separately.