RARE GRAPE VARIETAL RESOURCE

Gouais blanc (Weisser Heunisch in Germany) is a white grape variety that is seldom grown today but is important as the ancestor of many traditional French and German grape varieties.

Gouais is known to have been widely planted in central and northeastern France in Medieval times. At this time, it was used to produce simple, acidic white wines, and were primarily grown in less good plots that were not suited for the much more highly regarded Pinot Noir or Pinot Gris.

The Phylloxera epidemic wiped out the variety in France, and it now survives only in the INRA collection at Domaine de Vassal, Montpellier. Gouais blanc has continued to be commercially grown at several vineyards in Switzerland and in recent years, a few historically interested wine producers have started to plant small amounts of Gouais blanc. Gouais has also been grown for over 100 years by Chambers Rosewood Winery in Rutherglen, Australia.

DNA fingerprinting at the University of California, Davis in the late 1990s identified Gouais blanc as the ancestor of a large number of classical European grape varieties.

 Un raisin "énormément planté au Moyen Age parce qu'il était très productif" mais abandonné car "au niveau qualitatif, il est acide, il est amer, il n'a aucun parfum".

(Photo and text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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