Major Grape Varieties There are thousands of grape varieties in the world that can make wine.  It is said that Italy alone has over 2,000 different selections.  And while it is true that the juice of ripe grapes can make wine, there are only a relatively small number that make wine that is both interesting and delicious. Most of the world’s favorite vine varieties were adapted from the French:  Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Pinot Noir, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Pinot Gris, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc.  These varieties make up the vast majority of wine grown in the modern vineyards of the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Of course, great wine like Italy’s Barolo is made of Nebbiolo, and Chianti is primarily composed of Sangiovese.  Spain’s great red Riojas are based upon Tempranillo. Many famous regions like Bordeaux and Chateauneuf-du-Pape rely on multiple grape varieties blended together to make their best wines. The following pages are a list of the world’s finest and most popular grape varieties.

Red Grape Varieties

	Cabernet Sauvignon
	The most important red grape of Bordeaux, although most Bordeaux are blends with Merlot, Cabernet Franc and others. It is also California's most prestigious grape. It makes a dark, tannic wine with flavors of cassis, earth and blackberry. Bordeaux can age 60 or more years, California Cabernet is a less reliable ager, often peaking at 5-7 years of age.
	Merlot
	Originally a blending grape in Bordeaux known for its softening properties, it is now the most popular-selling red wine in American grocery stores. Often pleasant but innocuous when made in huge quantities, serious producers make interesting wines from Merlot, usually by blending Cabernet Sauvignon into the mix. The blackberry flavors are quite often green-herb tinged.
	Pinot Noir
	The most haunting red grape of all because of its wine's beautiful aromatics and deep red and black cherry flavors. Although it is hard to grow and harder to make well, great Pinot Noir from cool regions like Burgundy, Oregon and cooler regions in California are transcendent wines. Smelling and drinking a great aged red Burgundy, made from Pinot Noir, is the grandest red wine experience in the world.
	Cabernet Franc
	Genetically the father of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc makes a dark red wine that reflects terroir more than its more famous relative. In the Loire Valley, it is a minerally red wine with tight structure and flavors of crushed blackberries.
	Zinfandel
	Native to Croatia by way of Italy's Puglia and New York's Long Island, Zinfandel is thought of as California's native grape. Herb-scented and raspberry flavored, leaner Zinfandel makes a fine food wine. Traditionally field blended with Grenache, Carignan, Petite Sirah and Alicanté Bouchet for complexity and interest, the current trend is to make Zinfandel as ripe, port-like and alcoholic as possible. Modern versions, unfortunately have become wine's equivalent to "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" contests. Drink with gorgonzola, take two aspirin and call me in the morning.
	Syrah
	The most expressive red wine grape in France's Rhone Valley. It makes black wine with exotic perfumes of smoked bacon, violets and blueberries. In the mouth it is supple, velvety and generous and has complex flavors of smoke and blackberry.
	Grenache
	An underappreciated grape variety responsible for much of the village wine of Spain and the south of France. Although Grenache makes a delightful, red cherry tasting wine, taken by itself it is usually quite simple. To soar, like in Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Grenache needs some heft and complexity by adding Syrah and Mourvedre.
	Mourvedre
	The major grape of Provence's Bandol region and an important blending grape in the southern Rhone and Languedoc. Bandols can age 20 years or more in good vintages and achieve complexity and breed. In Spain Mourvedre is known as Monastrell and Mataro. As a varietal, Mourvedre can be a tad funky in the nose and rather simple in the mouth. But blended into Grenache and Syrah, it is indispensable in adding the necessary complexity of flavor for making great, age worthy wines.
	Malbec
	Emerging as Argentina's most important red wine grape, it is best known as a blending grape in Bordeaux and the main grape in the lesser-known region of Cahors in southwest France, where it makes a bigger, softer wine that Bordeaux.
	Tempranillo
	An important grape all over Spain, but particularly in Rioja and Ribera del Duero, Tempranillo is versatile, producing simple but delicious everyday wines, and complex, age-worthy treasures, depending on where it is grown. One of the best wines to accompany lamb, Tempranillo has black cherry, black raspberry and blackberry flavors, sometimes with a subtle orange-citrus note.
	Nebbiolo
	Like Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo is extremely difficult to grow and make properly. In fact, Italy's Piedmont region is the only place where Nebbiolo makes great wine; it is the grape of Barolo and Barbaresco. The perfume is what sets Nebbiolo apart—a spicy, red-cherry perfume that sometimes has a foresty and vanilla aroma. With green tannins that are very astringent, young Nebbiolo is almost impossible to drink. But aged Barolos are only rivaled by red Burgundy for exotic perfection in wine.
	Sangiovese
	The most important grape in Tuscany where Chianti and Brunello use variations. It is also being planted throughout central and southern Italy where it makes a pleasant, if not complex table wine. Tart cherry flavors when lean, fuller, black fruit flavors when riper. Topday Sangiovese is often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah to make them more immediately appealing, especially to Americans with fruit-forward tastes. In Tuscany, it is particularly good with Tuscan tomato-based foods.
	Touriga Nacional
	Portugal's most important grape and the major grape of Port. Rich, ripe and full bodied, when fortified, Port wine can age a century or more, transforming into very complex and beautiful sweet wines.

White Grape Varieties

	Chardonnay
	A grape that makes a rich, full-flavored dry wine with flavors of apple and pear. It is very adaptable to its region and the whims of its winemaker. Soil, oak aging and malolactic fermentation can affect the flavor of Chardonnay dramatically. Depending on the structure, a Chardonnay can age for decades, but in warmer regions fades after just a few years. The best selling variety in the United States.
	Sauvignon Blanc
	A grape that produces brisk, refreshing, herb-scented, grapefruity or melon-like dry white wines.
	Chenin Blanc
	As full-bodied as Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc has more acidity for greater longevity. Chenin Blanc also picks up the local terroir. When ripe, they can have a beeswax and melon-like aroma and flavor, when leaner, they have a more minerally purity. Bad examples taste rather medicine-y. They are equally good dry, off-dry, sweet, and very-sweet. In the Loire Valley they can live up to a century.
	Riesling
	The greatest of all white grapes, Riesling can be grown anywhere and reflect its terroir. The flavors resemble green apple when lean and peach and apricot when ripe. In the finest growing regions like Germany's Rheingau and Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Riesling makes impeccable, delicious, perfectly-balanced wines at all sweetness levels. The super-concentrated beerenauslese and trockenbeerenauslese of Germany are the greatest, rarest and most expensive sweet wines in the world. They can age a century.
	Gewurztraminer
	A spicy, reddish-skinned, very perfumey grape with a steely core and an aroma and flavor that uncannily resembles lychee. The great Alsace Gewurztraminers are too aggressive for most foods, but a soft, lightly sweet new-world version makes a fine all-purpose wine.
	Viognier
	Another perfumey, aggressive wine that is troublesome with most foods, but irresisttible to smell and taste by itself. Sometimes smelling like intense pineapple or pine, the flavors range from steely to pineapple-y.
	Pinot Gris
	Also called Pinot Grigio in Italy, Pinot Gris, a reddish-skinned grape, makes an expressive melony-tasting wine with fine structure and wonderful purity of fruit. Very versatile as a food wine, especially with rich fish like salmon, smoked fish and poultry. In Alsace, it can make a delicious sweet wine as well as fine dry wines.
	Pinot Blanc
	Not as regal nor complex as Pinot Gris, it makes a lively, Chardonnay-like, pleasant, all-purpose dry wine.
	Albariño
	Native to northwest Spain, Albariño makes a fresh-tasting, floral, nearly effervescent light-to-medium bodied wine with crisp acidity. It resembles a cross between a Sauvignon Blanc and a Riesling and is delightful with cold-water shellfish and seafood.
	Verdejo
	Fast becoming a popular wine, the white Rueda from northwest Spain is made mostly from Verdejo, an aromatic wine that closely resembles Sauvignon Blanc, with more of a melony character. Crisp and refreshing, it is now an excellent value.
	Trebbiano
	Also called Ugni Blanc in France, it is a popular grape in Italy where it makes, softer, easy-to-drink dry white wines with little character, but great likeability.
	Malvasia
	It makes an aromatic, fruity-tasting, full-bodied dry and sweet wine. Minerally. Grown mostly in Mediterranean countries.
	Muscat Blanc
	The closest thing to drinking fresh grapes. It makes an aromatic, citrusy wine, sometimes with effervescence, sometimes more syrupy in texture. Although it is Gewurztraminer-like when dry, it is one of planet Earth's great joys when fermented sweet.