Crouchen is a white South African and

Australian wine The Australian wine industry is one of the world's largest exporters of wine, with approximately 800 million out of the 1.2 to 1.3 billion litres produced annually exported to overseas markets. The wine industry is a significant contributor ...

grape variety This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species including those unimportant to agriculture, see Viti ...

that originated in the western

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

but is now virtually extinct in France due to its high susceptibility to fungal diseases like powdery and

downy mildew Downy mildew refers to any of several types of oomycete microbes that are obligate parasites of plants. Downy mildews exclusively belong to the Peronosporaceae family. In commercial agriculture, they are a particular problem for growers of cruc ...

. The grape is known under a wide variety of synonyms including Clare Riesling and Cape Riesling though it is not related to the well known

international variety An international variety is a grape variety that is widely planted in most of the major wine producing regions and has widespread appeal and consumer recognition. These are grapes that are highly likely to appear on wine labels as varietal wines ...

Riesling Riesling (, ; ) is a white grape variety that originated in the Rhine region. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet, and sparkling wh ...

.J. Robinson ''Jancis Robinson's Guide to Wine Grapes'' pg 53 Oxford University Press 1996 Recent

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regulation aimed at standardizing

wine label Wine labels are important sources of information for consumers since they tell the type and origin of the wine. The label is often the only resource a buyer has for evaluating the wine before purchasing it. Certain information is ordinarily incl ...

ling laws has encouraged wineries to move away from these synonyms but their use still persists.T. Stevenson ''The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia'' Fifth Edition pg 51 Dorling Kindersley (2011)

History

Records indicate that Crouchen was first shipped from France to the

Clare Valley The Clare Valley is a valley located in South Australia about north of Adelaide in the Clare and Gilbert Valleys council area. It is the river valley formed by the Hutt River but is also strongly associated with the roughly parallel Hill Riv ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

in 1850. From there the grape became misidentified as both Semillon and

before eventually being considered by the Australians to be a new variety known as Clare Riesling. In 1976

ampelographer Ampelography ( ἄμπελος, "vine" + γράφος, "writing") is the field of botany concerned with the identification and classification of grapevines, ''Vitis'' spp. Traditionally this has been done by comparing the shape and colour of the ...

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positively identified the vines growing in Australia as the French variety Crouchen.

Wine regions

In the early 1990s, there were over 1,000 acres (420 hectares) of Crouchen growing throughout Australia but its numbers have been steadily declining over the past few decades.Oz Clarke ''Encyclopedia of Grapes'' pg 85 Harcourt Books 2001 Here is it is primarily used as a blending variety to enhance the aromas of white wines. It is still widely grown in South Africa, accounting for almost 3% of all of South Africa's vineyards, with more than 7,900 acres (3,200 ha) planted mostly in the

Paarl Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...

and

Stellenbosch Stellenbosch (; )A Universal Pronounc ...

regions. Here the variety is known as Cape Riesling but is often simply called Riesling as opposed to the

German wine German wine is primarily produced in the west of Germany, along the river Rhine and its tributaries, with the oldest plantations going back to the Ancient Rome, Roman era. Approximately 60 percent of German wine is produced in the state of Rhine ...

grape Riesling that is known in South Africa as Weisser or White Riesling. Wine expert Jancis Robinson notes that some examples of Cape Riesling do have the potential to

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and improve in the bottle.

Oz Clarke Robert Owen Clarke (born 1949), known as Oz Clarke, is a British wine writer, actor, television presenter and broadcaster. Early life Clarke's parents were a chest physician and a nursing sister. He is of Irish descent and was brought up Roman ...

notes that some the best examples of Crouchen can be "fairly steely".

Synonyms

Crouchen is also known under the synonyms Basque, Cape Riesling, Cheri Cerratia, Clare Riesling, Cougnet, Crochenta, Crouchen Blanc, Cruchen, Cruchen Blanc, Cruchenta, Cruchenton Blanc, Grand Blanc, Hondarribi Zuri, Kaapse Riesling, Messanges Blanc, Navarre Blanc, Paarl Riesling, Riesling, Riesling Vert, S. A. Riesling, Sable Blanc, Sales Blanc, Trouchet Blanc, and Zurizerratia.Crouchen
,

Vitis International Variety Catalogue The Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) is a database of various species and varieties/cultivars of grapevine, the genus ''Vitis''. VIVC is administered by the Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding (''Institut für Rebenzüchtung Gei ...

, accessed 2010-07-14

References

{{Reflist White wine grape varieties Australian wine South African wine