Grenache Gris

Identity

Grenache Gris is Grenache's third colour, and the least studied of the three.

Like Grenache Blanc it is a colour mutation of Grenache Noir — but an incomplete one: the berry keeps some pigment and turns a pinkish grey. Genetically it is still the same variety. In regulation, it is a third grape.

Its ampelographic record is the thinnest of the family, and that is worth noting: Pl@ntGrape judges its "susceptibilities and tolerances identical to those of Grenache Blanc", which is an honest way of saying it has not been studied in its own right. This page will not fill that gap.

In the vineyard

Bud burst mid-season, ripeness late — a notch after Grenache Blanc, and that is the only phenological difference the source draws between the two.

For everything else it refers back to Grenache Blanc. Vigour not filled in, susceptibilities not detailed separately: an empty field means "not established", and here it mostly means "not measured separately".

In the glass

Broad whites, sometimes faintly tinted — the grey skin lets a little colour through if maceration is not cut short.

The two descriptors on this entry, apricot and white peach, are readings of the stone-fruit register the original stub described, not quotations from Pl@ntGrape.

Its real interest in the Roussillon lies elsewhere than in aroma. A late-ripening Grenache with faintly coloured skin gives thicker whites, which take oxidative ageing and time — the register of old Roussillon whites and of rancio. But this page will not assert that: no source opened for it establishes it, and it is exactly the kind of reputation that ought to be verified before being repeated.

Where it is named

At Banyuls, a principal variety alongside Grenache Noir and Grenache Blanc. The three colours of one variety gathered in a single blend — the clearest such case in this corpus.

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

What this entry does not say

A great deal, and it prefers to list it. No vigour of its own, no susceptibility measured separately from Grenache Blanc, no sourced aroma profile, no planted area. Its role in the Roussillon's rancio and oxidative wines, reputed but not verified here.

It is the thinnest entry in the Grenache family, and that is faithful to the state of the documentation.