Gouget noir is a red

French wine French wine is produced all throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France is one of the largest wine producers in the world, along with Italian, Spanish, and Ameri ...

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 ...

that is grown in the

Allier Allier ( , , ; oc, Alèir) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region that borders Cher to the west, Nièvre to the north, Saône-et-Loire and Loire to the east, Puy-de-Dôme to the south, and Creuse to the south-west. Named after ...

and Cher departments of central France. The grape was once widely planted with almost 17,000 hectares (42,008 acres) in the mid-19th century but the

phylloxera epidemic The Great French Wine Blight was a severe blight of the mid-19th century that destroyed many of the vineyards in France and laid waste to the wine industry. It was caused by an aphid that originated in North America and was carried across the A ...

greatly diminished it numbers and as of 2008 there was just 10

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre i ...

s (25 acres) of the grape planted in France.J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz ''Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours'' pg 422, Allen Lane 2012

History

The origins of the name Gouget noir is not known. Some wine experts, such as Master of Wine Jancis Robinson, speculate that it may have been named after a vineyard owner and propagator of vine cuttings since ''Gouget'' is a common family name. DNA analysis suggests that the grape may be descended from the

Hunnic grape A division of grape varieties into Frankish and Hunnic grape varieties was practiced in German-speaking countries in the Middle Ages and separated varieties considered to be better from those considered to be lesser. Frankish (''fränkisch'') gra ...

Gouais blanc that is known under the synonym ''Gouget blanc'' and has sired many French wine grapes such as

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new ...

, Gamay noir,

Aubin vert Aubin vert is a white French wine grape variety that is grown in the Lorraine region where it is an authorized variety for the '' Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée'' (AOC) wines of the Moselle. While often confused for the Côtes de Toul grape Aub ...

Balzac blanc Balzac blanc is a white French wine grape variety that is grown in the Charente and Charente-Maritime regions of Southwest France where it was once used for Cognac production but now is nearly extinct. The grape was one thought to be a color mutat ...

and

Bachet noir Bachet noir is a traditional French variety of red wine grape that is a sibling of Chardonnay. A little is still grown in the Aube, where it is used to add colour and body to Gamay wines. History DNA fingerprinting has shown that it is one of m ...

.Oz Clarke ''Encyclopedia of Grapes'' pg 112 Harcourt Books 2001 The grape's history in central France dates back at least to the 19th century where an 1843 document showed that it was used as both a wine and table grape in the Allier and Cher department where it was prized for the sweet flavor of its flesh. Gouget noir became a specialty of the communes of Domérat,

Huriel Huriel (; oc, Uriac) is a commune in the Allier department in central France. Population See also *Communes of the Allier department The following is a list of the 317 communes of the Allier department of France. Intercommunalities ...

and Montluçon and by the mid-19th century the grape accounted for nearly half of all vineyard plantings in Allier with almost 17,000 hectares (42,008 acres). As with nearly all French wine regions,

viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for '' vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of '' Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, r ...

in Allier sharply declined after the

phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belong to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bu ...

epidemic of the late-19th century but as winemaking returned most of the vineyards in Allier replanted with different varieties such as Gamay noir.

Viticulture

Gouget noir is an early ripening variety that tends to produce small clusters of tiny berries. The vine also tends to bud early but is fairly resistant to springtime frost damage with its most significant viticultural hazard being its susceptibility to

botrytis bunch rot ''Botrytis cinerea'' is a necrotrophic fungus that affects many plant species, although its most notable hosts may be wine grapes. In viticulture, it is commonly known as "botrytis bunch rot"; in horticulture, it is usually called "grey mould" or ...

. The grape is often confused for being clones of Gamay noir and Pinot noir and while there might be a relationship to Gamay via a shared parentage with Gouais blanc, DNA analysis has confirmed that Gouget noir is its own distinct variety.

Wine regions

Today, Gouget noir is still found in the Allier and Cher regions but its numbers are far fewer from its pre-phylloxera plantings or even the 739 ha (1,826 acres) that were growing after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The 2008 census of wine grape varieties counted only 10 ha (25 acres) of the grape, mostly found in the commune of Huriel in the Allier department.

Synonyms

Over the years Gouget noir has been known under a variety of synonyms including: Gauget noir, Gouge, Gouge noir, Goujet, Lyonnais, Moret, Nérou, Neyrac, Neyran, Neyrou and Petit Neyran.

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 ...

(VIVC)
Gouget noir
'' Accessed: April 18th, 2013

References

{{Reflist Red wine grape varieties