Principal Wine Grape Varieties

One of our sponsors is;

The Principal Wine Grape Varieties

Wine grape varieties of commercial importance represent only a fraction of thousands of varieties grown throughout the world. The unique physiological make up of each wine grape variety including the colour, size, phenolic distribution and acidity gives each wine its own character. The majority of these vines belong to the European species Vitis Vinifera which produce quality grapes that represent true varietal characters although most are grafted on American rootstocks as a prevention against the deadly Phylloxera.

Click on a letter range to list all the grape varieties in that group.

A-B

C-D

E-F

G-H

I-J

K-L

M-N

O-P

Q-R

S-T

U-V

W-X

Y-Z

Click on a sample wine grape variety below for more information.


Grape	Varieties & Alternatives	Notes

Aligote	Plant Gris	Aligoté is one of the principal white grape varieties of Burgundy and is now used mainly in Bourgogne Aligoté - only the village of Bouzéron has it's own appellation for Aligoté. The variety is also popular in eastern Europe, Chile and, to a smaller extent, California. It is known by many names within Burgundy itself, such as Griset Blanc, Plant Gris, Chaudenet Gras.

Barbera	Perricone	Barbera is one of the most planted black grapes in Italy and accounts for nearly half of the annual wine production in Piedmont. It is also used in varietal wines in Lombardy. Outside of Italy it is cultivated in Slovenia, North and South America.

Cabernet Sauvignon	Uva Francese, Vidure	Cabernet Sauvignon is the grape variety for producing fine red wines. It is used in blends and as a varietal wine across the world. It is also known as Vidure and Uva Francese.

Periquita	Joao de Santarem, Castelao Frances	Periquita is the synonym for the Castelăo Frances grape variety in the Terras do Sado and Ribatejo regions of Portugal.

Sauvignon Blanc	Blanc Fume, Muskat-Silvaner	Sauvignon Blanc is a vine variety which produces dry white wines from Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume in France and Sauvignon Blanc and Fume Blanc from the rest of the world. It is also known as Spergola (Emilia, Italy), Sauvignon and Fume Blanc. Other mutations known as the Sauvignon Noir, Sauvignon Jaune and Sauvignon Rose exist.

Zinfandel	Crljenak Kasteljanski, Primitivo	Zinfandel is a black grape variety of European origin which is widely cultivated in California. It is possibly the same vine as Primitivo. It is also known as Zenfendel, Zinfindal, Crljenak (Croatia), Crljenak Kaštelanski (Croatia) and Black St. Peter (US).

	For more information look at the Wine Grape Varieties by Country page. You may also be interested in viewing a selection of common wine grape varieties beginning with letters G to P and R to Z.
	Search for a wine below.

Wine Name:
Vintage:	NV=Non Vintage
Show:
Merchant Location:	Include Merchants who ship there
Display Currency:

Help