Prunelard

Identity

Prunelard exists mostly because it had a famous child. Established by genetic markers, it is one of the two parents of Cot — the variety Cahors made global under the name Malbec.

It has no documented parentage of its own. And it came close to vanishing: the VIVC records only three institutions holding it, in France, Italy and Slovakia. For a French variety, that is the threshold of extinction.

A survivor, and why

Its near-disappearance is no mystery. Pl@ntGrape calls it "not very productive". A low-yielding variety, in a century when yield decided what got planted, does not survive competition from its own offspring — Cot gives more, on the same ground.

It was kept for what it is: a link. You keep a parent to understand its child, and sometimes to make the crossing again.

Which makes its return to Gaillac's specification remarkable: the text in force names it a principal variety for reds and rosés, alongside Duras, Fer and Syrah. A relict variety promoted to the front rank of an appellation is a growers' editorial decision, not an agronomic fact.

In the vineyard

Bud burst and ripeness mid-season, medium vigour, upright habit, long pruning possible. It is little troubled by grey rot.

Nothing in that profile explains its rarity except productivity. It is a growable variety, simply not a profitable one by twentieth-century measures.

In the glass

Full body and high alcohol — the only two characters the source quantifies, and they sketch a powerful red.

One descriptor here, blackberry, and it is worth being clear about its standing: the original entry gives it as a "register estimated by ampelographic proximity to Cot, not measured". It is an inference from its offspring, not a tasting of Prunelard. It is labelled as such and will not be joined by others of the same kind.

A variety whose aromas are deduced from its child's: that is an admission of thin documentation, and this entry prefers to say so.

Where it is named

At Gaillac only, and as a principal variety. No other published appellation in this corpus cites it.

What this entry does not say

Cot's second parent, and therefore Malbec's full pedigree. It is established, but that other parent has no entry here, and this entry refrains from naming what it has not verified. Likewise, nothing on the area actually replanted at Gaillac since its rehabilitation, for want of an open source.