Grand Noir de la Calmette (or simply Grand noir) is a red ''

teinturier Teinturier grapes are grapes whose flesh and juice is red in colour due to anthocyanin pigments accumulating within the pulp of the grape berry itself. In most cases, anthocyanin pigments are confined to the outer skin tissue only, and the squee ...

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 is a crossing of

Petit Bouschet Petit Bouschet is a red ''teinturier'' grape variety that is a crossing of Aramon noir and Teinturier du Cher created in 1824 by French grape breeder Louis Bouschet at his vineyard in Mauguio in the Hérault department. The grape was used by Lo ...

and

Aramon noir Aramon or Aramon noir is a variety of red wine grape grown primarily in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France. Between the late 19th century and the 1960s, it was France's most grown grape variety, but plantings of Aramon have been in continuous ...

created in 1855 by French grape breeder

Henri Bouschet Henri Bouschet was a French viticulturalist who specialized in crossing pigmented ''teinturière'' varieties of Vitis vinifera grapes - particularly with a view to sourcing colour (and tannin). Son of renowned viticulturalist, Louis-Marie Bousch ...

at his vineyard in Mauguio in the

Hérault Hérault (; oc, Erau, ) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz ''Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours'' pgs 428 & 664 Allen Lane 2012 The grape was named after the breeding station Domaine de la Calmette. As a teinturier, Grand noir is often used to add color to wines that it is blended into but is paler than other choices such as

Alicante Bouschet Alicante Bouschet or Alicante Henri Bouschet is a wine grape variety that has been widely cultivated since 1866. It is a cross of Petit Bouschet (itself a cross of the very old variety Teinturier du Cher and Aramon) and Grenache.bud In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of a stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately. Buds may be spec ...

late and has a high productivity but with some susceptibility to the viticultural hazard of

powdery mildew Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that affects a wide range of plants. Powdery mildew diseases are caused by many different species of ascomycete fungi in the order Erysiphales. Powdery mildew is one of the easier plant diseases to identify, a ...

. J. Robinson ''Vines, Grapes & Wines'' pg 207 Mitchell Beazley 1986 While Grand Noir de la Calmette originated in

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 ...

and was once widely grown in the

Cognac Cognac ( , also , ) is a variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding wine-growing region in the departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime. Cognac production falls under French appella ...

and

Languedoc wine Languedoc-Roussillon wine, including the '' vin de pays'' labeled ''Vin de Pays d'Oc'', is produced in southern France. While "Languedoc" can refer to a specific historic region of France and Northern Catalonia, usage since the 20th century (esp ...

regions, today it is rarely planted in that country. Instead, the variety is predominantly found in the

Spanish wine regions The mainstream quality wine regions in Spain are referred to as '' denominaciones de origen protegidas (DOP)'' (similar to the French Appellations) and the wine they produce is regulated for quality according to specific laws, and in compliance ...

of Galicia in northwest Spain and in the southern

Portuguese wine Portuguese wine was mostly introduced by the Romans and other ancient Mediterranean peoples who traded with local coastal populations, mainly in the South. In pre-Roman Gallaecia-Lusitania times, the native peoples only drank beer and were unfami ...

regions of Alentejo. Grand Noir de la Calmette is often compared with its sibling grape, Alicante Bouschet, and the wines that both varieties produce tend to be very similar though

Master of Wine Master of Wine (MW) is a qualification (not an academic degree) issued by The Institute of Masters of Wine in the United Kingdom. The MW qualification is generally regarded in the wine industry as one of the highest standards of professional knowle ...

Jancis Robinson notes that those made from Grand Noir de la Calmette tend to have more noticeable "peppery" spice.

History

Grand Noir de la Calmette was created in 1855 by French grape breeder Henri Bouschet at his Domaine de la Calmette vineyard near Montpellier. The grape is a crossing of the ''

Vitis vinifera ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran. There are curr ...

'' species Aramon noir and Petit Bouschet (the later a crossing of Aramon and Teinturier du Cher created by Henri's father Louis Bouschet). That same year Bouschet use Petit Bouschet in another crossing with

Graciano Graciano is a Spanish red wine grape that is grown primarily in Rioja. The vine produces a low yield that are normally harvested in late October. The wine produced is characterized by its deep red color, strong aroma and ability to age w ...

to create

Morrastel Bouschet Morrastel Bouschet is red French wine grape variety that is a crossing of the Spanish wine ''Vitis vinifera'' grape Graciano and the red-fleshed teinturier Bouschet Petit. The grape is often confused with its parent vine, Graciano, that is known a ...

. At same point Morrastel Bouschet was introduced to the

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

as Grand Noir de la Calmette where it made its way to the grape collection at the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology. The grapevines were misidentified until only recently when ampelographers discovered the error. True Grand Noir de la Calmette does exist in California with two vineyards, in

Windsor, California Windsor is an incorporated town in Sonoma County, California, United States. The town is 9 miles north of Santa Rosa and 63 miles north of San Francisco. The population was 26,801 as of the 2010 census. Windsor was once home to a waterslide p ...

located in the

Russian River Valley AVA The Russian River Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in Sonoma County, California. Centered on the Russian River, the Russian River Valley AVA accounts for about one-sixth of the total planted vineyard acreage in Sonoma County. T ...

Sonoma County Sonoma County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa. It is to the north of Marin County and the south of Mendocino ...

and Kuchan Cellars of

Morgan Hill, California Morgan Hill is a city in Santa Clara County, California, at the southern tip of Silicon Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Morgan Hill is an affluent residential community, the seat of several high-tech companies, and a dining, entertainme ...

Santa Clara Valley AVA The Santa Clara Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Santa Clara County, California. The area served an important role in the early history of California wine and was home to the pioneer winemakers Paul Masson and Charles Lef ...

having old vines that date back to the early 1900s.

Viticulture and winemaking

Teinturier Agria and peeled Grenache grape

Grand Noir de la Calmette is a high yielding grape variety that needs to be kept in check by winter

pruning Pruning is a horticultural, arboricultural, and silvicultural practice involving the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots. The practice entails the ''targeted'' removal of diseased, damaged, dead, ...

or green harvesting. It can be limited by plantings in

vineyard soils The soil composition of vineyards is one of the most important viticultural considerations when planting grape vines. The soil supports the root structure of the vine and influences the drainage levels and amount of minerals and nutrients that the ...

of low fertility, however, vines planted in those types of soils do run the risk of shriveling. Among the viticultural hazards that Grand Noir de la Calmette is most susceptible to is powdery mildew. While most wine grape varieties, even those such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache used to make red wine, have "white flesh" that yield white or greyish colored juice, Grand Noir de la Calmette is a ''teinturier'' grape that has red color flesh that yields red colored juice without needing any

skin contact Maceration is the winemaking process where the phenolic materials of the grape— tannins, coloring agents (anthocyanins) and flavor compounds—are leached from the grape skins, seeds and stems into the must. To macerate is to soften by soakin ...

to leach color into the wine. However, the juice of Grand Noir de la Calmette is very pale (especially compared to other Bouschet varieties such as Alicante Bouschet) so the wine often does see some maceration time.

Wine regions

While Grand Noir de la Calmette originated in France, and was once widely planted in the Cognac and Languedoc wine region, today it is rarely planted in the country with less than in cultivation in 2008. The grape is much more prominent on the

Iberian peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

with in Spain and in Portugal. In Spain, Grand Noir de la Calmette is a permitted variety in the '' Denominación de Origen'' (DO) wines of Ribeira Sacra and

Valdeorras Valdeorras is a comarca in the Galician Province of Ourense. The overall population of this local region is 25,500 (2019). Municipalities * O Barco de Valdeorras, capital of the comarca *O Bolo *Carballeda de Valdeorras *Larouco * Petín * A ...

. Here the grape seems to handle the humid climate of Galicia and is often used to add color to the wines. In Portugal, Grand Noir de la Calmette is found mostly in the Portalegre wine region of Alentejo where it is blended with Alicante Bouschet,

Tempranillo Tempranillo (also known as Ull de Llebre, Cencibel, Tinto Fino and Tinta del Pais in Spain, Aragonez or Tinta Roriz in Portugal, and several other synonyms elsewhere) is a black grape variety widely grown to make full-bodied red wines in its ...

and Trincadeira. Outside of Europe, some plantings of the grape can be found in California where 100+ year old vines still exist in the Sonoma wine region of the Russian River Valley.

Synonyms

Over the years, Grand noir has been known under a variety of synonyms including: Galliko, Gkiobrek Kara, Gkranoba, Grand Bouschet (in Alentejo region of Portugal), Gran Negro (in the Valdeorras DO of Spain), Gran Noar, Gran Nuar de Lya Kalmett, Grand Chernyi, Granoir, Granua, Gros noir (in the

Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; eu, Pirinio Atlantiarrak or ) is a department in the southwest corner of France and of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Pyrenees mountain range and the Atlant ...

department of France), Gros Producteur, Kalmettei Fekete, Kalmettei Nagy Fekete, Pe de Perdiz, Pe de Pombo, Sousao do Oeste, Sumo tinto (in Portugal), Tinta, Tinta Fina, Tinta Francesa and Tinturao.

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 ...

(VIVC)
Grand noir
'' Accessed: May 26th, 2013

References

{{reflist Red wine grape varieties