The Wine Blokes

Information on the wine grape varieties used to make wine.

Gruner Veltliner is fast becoming a bit of fad, in fashion wine variety these days and Gary V, of Wine Library TV certainly thinks they will play a big part in the future of the global wine industry.  Check out this Episode as Gary explains the nuts and bolts of Gruner Veltliner.

Grüner Veltliner

Grüner Veltliner

Species:
Vitis vinifera

Also called:
Grüner Muskateller, Veltliner

Origin:
Austria

Notable regions:
Lower Austria, Burgenland, Moravia, Czech Republic

Notable wines:
Smaragds from Wachau

Grüner Veltliner is a variety of white wine grape widely grown primarily in Austria and widely also in the Czech Republic, but almost nowhere else. It has a reputation of being a particularly food-friendly wine.
It is made into wines of [...]

Species:
Vitis vinifera

Also called:
(more)

Origin:
Monferrato, Italy

Notable regions:
Montferrat (Italy), California, Australia and Argentina

Notable wines:
Barbera d’Asti, Barbera del Monferrato, Barbera d’Alba

Barbera is a red wine grape variety that is either the most- or second most-planted variety in Italy.  It gives good yields and can impart deep colour, low tannins and (unusually for a warm-climate red grape) high levels of [...]

Pedro Ximénez (also known as PX and many other variations) is the name of a white grape grown in certain regions of Spain, and also a varietal wine, an intensely sweet, dark, dessert sherry. Pedro Giménez (Pedro Jiménez) is a widely grown criolla variety in South America whose relationship to Pedro Ximénez is uncertain, as [...]

Nebbiolo (Italian), or Nebieul (Piedmontese) is one of the most important wine grape varieties of Italy’s Piedmont region.

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History
The grape is thought to derive its name from the Piedmontese word nebbia which means “fog.” During harvest, generally [...]

Gamay is a purple-colored grape variety used to make red wines, most notably grown in Beaujolais and in the Loire Valley around Tours. Its full name is Gamay Noir Jus Blanc. It is a very old cultivar, being mentioned already in the 1400s. It has been often cultivated because it makes for abundant production rather [...]

Pinot gris

A bunch of Pinot gris grapes

Species:
Vitis vinifera

Also called:
 

Origin:
Burgundy, France

Notable regions:
(see major regions)

Pinot gris is a white wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. Thought to be a mutant clone of the Pinot noir grape, it normally has a grayish-blue fruit, accounting for its name (“gris” meaning “gray” in French) but the grape can [...]

Sangiovese

Species:
Vitis vinifera

Also called:
Brunello, Sangiovese Grosso

Origin:
Italy

Notable regions:
Tuscany

Hazards:
Rot-prone

 

Sangiovese is a red wine grape variety originating in Italy whose name derives from sanguis Jovis, “the blood of Jove”. It is most famous as the main component of the Chianti blend in Tuscany, but winemakers outside Italy are starting to experiment with it. Young sangiovese has fresh fruity flavours [...]

Malbec

Malbec grapes

Species:
Vitis vinifera

Also called:
Auxerrois in Cahors, Côt, Pressac

Origin:
France

Notable regions:
Argentina, Chile, Cahors

Malbec is a black grape variety originally brought to France by a Hungarian peasant, where it was grown in the Loire Valle and Cahors. Long known as one of the six grapes used in the blending of red Bordeaux wine, it is increasingly celebrated as [...]

Riesling is a white grape variety grown historically in Germany (see German wine), Alsace (France), Austria, and northern Italy.
 
History
It is a very old grape, first documented in 1435, in which year the storage inventory of the high noble Count John IV. of Katzenelnbogen in Rüsselsheim (a small principality on the Rhine) lists the purchase of [...]