The Wine Blokes

Information on the wine grape varieties used to make wine.

Merlot grapes on the vine.
Merlot (’MERL-oh’ in British English and French, mer-LOH in American English) is a red wine grape that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. Merlot-based wines usually have medium body with hints of berry, plum and currant. Its softness and “fleshiness”, combined with its earlier ripening, makes […]

Shiraz, or Syrah, is a variety of grape used in wine. It is called Syrah in France, Argentina, Chile and most of the United States.
In Australia it used to be called Hermitage up to the late 1980s.
Syrah - shiraz - is the product of two lesser known French varieties, Dureza and Mondeuse Blanche.
Shiraz also has […]

Sauvignon blanc is a green-skinned grape variety which originates from the Bordeaux region of France. The grape gets it name from the French word sauvage (”wild”) and blanc (”white”) due to its early origins as an indigenous grape in western France. It is now planted in many of the world’s wine regions, producing a […]

Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety, used to make white wine. It probably originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France but is now found anywhere that grapevines can be grown, from England to New Zealand. It is vinified in many different styles, from the elegant, “flinty” wines of Chablis to rich, buttery Meursaults […]

Definition:Vitis Vinifera is the botanical name for the grape-bearing vine that is responsible for most of the world ’s quality wines.
History:
Wild grapes were harvested by foragers and early farmers. For thousands of years, the fruit has been harvested for both medicinal and nutritional value; its history is intimately entwined with the history of wine.

Did you know that their are more than 10,000 grape varieties of grape documented around the world? Many of these are of course used in the production of wine. However typically, many wine consumers only know of and recognise a tiny fraction that are used in the making of wine.
Many wine grape varieties […]