Gouais blanc

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Gouais blanc is a white grape variety that is seldom grown but is important as the ancestor of many French wine varieties. It is believed to originate in Croatia; in Eastern Europe it is known as Heunisch Weiss.

[edit] History

Gouais blanc may have been the grape given to the Gauls by Probus (Roman Emperor 276–282), who was from Pannonia.^[1] By the Middle Ages it was the most important white grape in northeast France. Gouais blanc was the grape of the peasantry, growing on the flat land next to the better slopes where the nobility grew Pinot.

Gouais blanc was also grown in the Jura, but phylloxera wiped out the variety in France, and it now survives only in the INRA collection at Domaine de Vassal, Montpellier.^[1]

[edit] Offspring

Having been widely grown in proximity to Pinot, the two varieties had many opportunities to cross. And having such distant origins, those crosses showed hybrid vigour and were widely propagated. This unique combination of events means that many grape varieties today have Gouais blanc as a parent, the most famous of which is Chardonnay.

DNA fingerprinting research at the University of California, Davis has also identified Gouais blanc as an ancestor of theAligoté, Aubun Vert, Auxerrois, Bachet noir, Beaunoir, Franc Noir de la-Haute-Saône, Gamay Blanc Gloriod, Gamay noir, Melon, Knipperlé, Peurion, Roublot, and Sacy grape varieties. ^[2]

[edit] References