Pascal

Identity

Pascal is an old Provençal white, now all but gone, surviving in two cahiers des charges — Cassis and Palette.

It is the same pattern as for half a dozen varieties in this corpus: economics abandoned it, the law keeps it.

A quality that has changed sides

Pl@ntGrape calls it "well suited to very exposed, dry sites", and it buds late while ripening late.

It is worth measuring what that combination is worth today. A variety that stands up to dryness, that starts late — so beyond the reach of spring frost — and finishes late — so picked after the worst heat — ticks exactly the boxes a warming Provence is trying to fill.

It was abandoned for another reason: it is "fertile and very productive". A century of seeking concentration set the generous varieties aside, and this one was generous.

This entry stops there. It records what the source says and does not predict what will be done with it — the same reserve as for Picardan, drought-resistant too.

In the vineyard

Upright habit. Late bud burst and late ripeness. Its vigour is not filled in: the source speaks of fertility and productivity, which are not vigour, and this corpus does not fill one in from the other. Empty field, "not established".

In the glass

Medium acidity, light to medium body, no tannin. A light white, with no marked relief.

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

As with most of the varieties in this pass, there is no documented single-variety bottling in the sources consulted: what is known of it comes from its behaviour in the vineyard, not from its taste.

Where it is named

At Cassis and Palette, an accessory white variety in both.

Two of the smallest appellations in Provence, and the same two that keep several other near-extinct varieties. That is no coincidence: tiny appellations are the ones with least to lose by keeping an unproductive grape.