The grapes
Every wine starts with a variety
Browse 110 grape varieties — search by name or filter by color to find what you're looking for.
Notable grapes
Start with the varieties you are most likely to meet on a label.
Chardonnay
The world's most widely planted white grape, remarkably adaptable to winemaking styles — from lean, mineral Chablis to rich, buttery, oak-aged versions from warmer regions.
Pinot Noir
A thin-skinned, notoriously fussy red variety from Burgundy that produces some of the world's most prized, aromatically complex wines when grown well.
Sauvignon Blanc
A vivacious, high-acid white grape prized for its pungent aromatics, ranging from grassy and green in the Loire to tropical and ripe in warmer New World regions like Marlborough.
Malbec
Originally a minor Bordeaux blending grape known as Côt, Malbec found its true expression in Cahors and later became Argentina's signature variety in the high-altitude vineyards of Mendoza.
Cabernet Sauvignon
The world's most widely recognized red grape, a natural crossing from 17th-century Bordeaux prized for its structure, deep color, and ability to age for decades.
Pinot Gris
A grey-pink-skinned mutation of Pinot Noir, made in a rich, spicy style in Alsace and a crisp, light one in northern Italy as Pinot Grigio.
Riesling
An aromatic, high-acid white grape capable of extraordinary range, from bone-dry to lusciously sweet, that transmits its site's terroir with unusual precision.
Merlot
A softer, earlier-ripening red grape than its Bordeaux half-sibling Cabernet Sauvignon, offering plush, approachable fruit and rounder tannins.
Syrah
A dark, peppery red grape from the Northern Rhône, known as Shiraz in Australia, capable of producing everything from elegant, savory wines to bold, jammy ones.
Cabernet Franc
An aromatic, herbaceous red grape long grown in the Loire and Bordeaux, valued both as a blending component and, in the Loire, as a light, perfumed single-varietal wine.
Chenin Blanc
A high-acid white grape from the Loire that makes everything from bone-dry to lusciously sweet and sparkling wines, and is South Africa's most planted white.
Grenache
A sun-loving, high-alcohol red grape central to Southern Rhône blends like Châteauneuf-du-Pape, offering ripe red fruit and a soft, generous texture.
Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains
One of the oldest and most widely mutated wine grapes, the source of the sweet, grapey Moscato d'Asti and of the fortified Muscats of the south of France and Australia.
Colombard
A crisp, high-acid white, a cross of Chenin Blanc and Gouais Blanc, used for Cognac and Armagnac, dry Gascon whites and easy-drinking wines in California and South Africa.
Sangiovese
Tuscany's workhorse red grape, the backbone of Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino, prized for its bright acidity and savory, tart-cherry character.
Tempranillo
Spain's most important red grape, valued for its balance of fruit and structure and its affinity for oak aging, forming the backbone of Rioja.
Muscat of Alexandria
A sun-loving, grapey white, a cross of Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains and Axina de Tres Bias, used for sweet and fortified wines, brandy and table grapes.
Mourvèdre
A late-ripening, heat-loving red, tannic and gamey, the backbone of Bandol and of Spain's Jumilla, and the M of the classic GSM blend.
Glera
The white grape behind Prosecco: light, high in acidity and gently aromatic, and almost always made into a fresh, fruity sparkling wine.
Ugni Blanc
One of the most widely planted white grapes in the world, valued more for its high acidity and neutrality — ideal for distilling into Cognac and Armagnac — than for varietal wine.
Tannat
One of the world's most tannic red grapes: deeply coloured and austere in Madiran, softer and fruitier in Uruguay, where it is the national grape.
Albariño
A thick-skinned, high-acid, saline white from Galicia's Atlantic coast and the north of Portugal, where it is called Alvarinho.
Blaufränkisch
A firm, peppery, dark-fruited red grown from Burgenland to Hungary and Württemberg, and the parent of Zweigelt.
Cinsault
A heat-tolerant Southern French red variety traditionally used for soft, fruity blends and rosé, later famous as one parent of South Africa's signature grape, Pinotage.
Grüner Veltliner
Austria's signature white: fresh, peppery and mineral, from light Weinviertel wines to the rich, long-lived bottlings of the Wachau.
Narince
A thin-skinned, medium-bodied white from Tokat on the Yeşilırmak, one of Turkey's most widely grown native whites, with citrus, pear and floral notes.
Nebbiolo
The noble grape behind Barolo and Barbaresco, pale in color but ferociously tannic and high in acid, capable of long aging and remarkable aromatic complexity.
Öküzgözü
Turkey's most widely planted red grape, from the high country around Elazığ, making juicy, fresh reds with soft tannins and flavours of black mulberry and sour cherry.
Zinfandel
A red grape of Croatian origin, genetically identical to Italy's Primitivo, that became California's signature variety, prone to uneven ripening and capable of jammy, high-alcohol wines.
Alicante Bouschet
A very dark, red-fleshed grape bred in 1866 by crossing Petit Bouschet with Grenache, now a signature of Portugal's Alentejo.
Carignan
A firm, high-acid, deep-coloured red from Aragón, once the most planted grape in France and now valued in old-vine wines from Priorat to Chile.
Chasselas
A delicate, low-acid, neutral white, Switzerland's most planted grape, where it shows the terroir of Vaud and Valais with unusual clarity.
Olaszrizling
Central Europe's widely planted, adaptable white, known as Welschriesling in Austria and Graševina in Croatia: not a Riesling at all, and made anywhere from dry and light to richly sweet.
Savagnin
An ancient, high-acid white grape of the Jura and the family root of Traminer, best known for nutty Vin Jaune aged under a veil of yeast.
Viognier
A heady, full-bodied, apricot-scented white from the northern Rhône, at its most intense in Condrieu.
Gewürztraminer
A pink-skinned, intensely aromatic grape most famous in Alsace, producing bold, perfumed white wines with notable texture despite low acidity.
Barbera
Piedmont's everyday red: deeply coloured, very high in acid and low in tannin, and juicy with cherry fruit.
Pinotage
South Africa's signature grape, deliberately bred in 1925 by crossing Pinot Noir with Cinsault to combine Pinot's quality with Cinsault's hardiness.
Sémillon
A soft, waxy white grape, the main variety of Sauternes and, in Australia's Hunter Valley, a long-lived, light dry wine.
Arneis
Piedmont's fragrant dry white, best known from Roero: pear, almond and white flowers in a rounded, fairly full-bodied wine, and a grape that was nearly lost.
Boğazkere
A thick-skinned, late-ripening red from the Tigris valley around Diyarbakır, making full-bodied, tannic wines with black cherry, pepper and tobacco that can age for a decade or more.
Gamay Noir
A light, juicy red grape that thrives in Beaujolais' granite soils, typically made into fresh, fruit-forward wines meant to be enjoyed young.
Listán Prieto
A rustic red carried by Spanish colonists across the Americas, where it is known as País in Chile, Mission in California and Criolla Chica in Argentina.
Marselan
A dark, aromatic, disease-resistant red bred in 1961 from Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache, now grown in France, Argentina and China.
Pinot Meunier
A mutation of Pinot Noir, the third grape of Champagne, giving fruity, soft, early-drinking wines to blends.
Ruby Cabernet
A hot-climate red bred at UC Davis in 1936 from Carignan and Cabernet Sauvignon, used mostly in bulk blends.
Sylvaner
A low-key, earthy white grape, a cross of Savagnin and the obscure Österreichisch Weiß, long the quiet backbone of Franconian and Alsatian whites.
Touriga Nacional
Portugal's most prized red grape: small-berried, very dark and floral, the core of the best Port and of Douro and Dão reds.
Treixadura
The main white grape of Ribeiro, in inland Galicia: fragrant and medium-bodied, with orchard fruit and honeysuckle, and usually blended with Godello, Loureiro or Albariño.
Auxerrois
A soft, rounded white, another child of Pinot Noir and Gouais Blanc, grown in Alsace, Luxembourg and Baden and often sold as Pinot Blanc.
Ciliegiolo
A light, cherry-scented red of Tuscany, Umbria and Liguria, closely related to Sangiovese and identified as one of its parents.
Durif
An inky, tannic red raised in the 1860s from Syrah and Peloursin, known in California as Petite Sirah and in Rutherglen, Australia, as Durif.
Kerner
A crisp, fruity white bred in 1929 by crossing Trollinger with Riesling, hardy and Riesling-like but lower in acid.
Müller-Thurgau
A mild, early-ripening white, bred at Geisenheim in 1882, that became Germany's most planted grape; a cross of Riesling and Madeleine Royale.
Torrontés Riojano
Argentina's signature aromatic white, a cross of Muscat of Alexandria and Listán Prieto, most at home in the high vineyards of Salta.
Trollinger
A pale, light, fruity red, called Schiava in South Tyrol and Trollinger in Württemberg, and a parent of Kerner, Madeleine Royale and Muscat Hamburg.
Carménère
A deep, spicy red from Bordeaux, a cross of Cabernet Franc and Gros Cabernet, almost lost in France but now Chile's signature grape.
Kalecik Karası
A light-bodied red from the Kızılırmak valley near Ankara, with silky tannins and red-fruit perfume, nearly lost to phylloxera and neglect before its revival in the 1970s.
Melon de Bourgogne
A neutral, high-acid white grape grown almost exclusively around Nantes in the Loire, where it's known by the name of its appellation, Muscadet, and often aged sur lie.
Zweigelt
Austria's most planted red grape: a fruity, easy-drinking cross of Blaufränkisch and Saint Laurent bred in 1922.
Agiorgitiko
One of Greece's best-known red grapes, from Nemea in the Peloponnese: plum and spice, soft and fruity when young, more structured from high vineyards.
Aligoté
Burgundy's 'other' white grape, overshadowed by Chardonnay but capable of crisp, mineral, high-acid wines, famously mixed with crème de cassis to make Kir.
Assyrtiko
Greece's finest white grape: intensely mineral and high in acid, grown in low, woven baskets on Santorini's volcanic soils.
Cortese
Piedmont's crisp white grape, the sole variety in Gavi, making dry, citrusy wines with a mineral, faintly saline finish.
Corvina
The main grape of Valpolicella and Bardolino, and, dried, of Amarone, thick-skinned, cherry-scented and high in acid.
Emir
A high-acid, mineral white of Cappadocia's volcanic vineyards, with lemon and green apple, made both as a crisp still wine and as sparkling.
Furmint
The main grape of Tokaj: very high in acid, prone to noble rot, and the basis of the great sweet Tokaji Aszú as well as increasingly serious dry wines.
Garganega
The Veneto's leading dry white grape, the base of Soave, giving almond, citrus and white-flower wines that are best from the volcanic hillsides.
Malvazija Istarska
Istria's signature white: fresh and floral, with peach, acacia and almond, made in styles from light and young to oak-aged and skin-contact.
Muscat Hamburg
A dark-skinned Muscat bred in England in 1850, mostly a table grape, a cross of Muscat of Alexandria and Trollinger.
Nero d'Avola
Sicily's leading red grape, dark, plummy and warm, from the area around Avola in the south-east.
Plavac Mali
Dalmatia's leading red, a cross of Zinfandel and Dobričić, producing powerful, tannic wines on the sun-baked slopes of the Pelješac peninsula.
Saperavi
Georgia's leading red grape: a teinturier, so red-fleshed and inky, with very high acid and firm tannins.
Savatiano
Greece's workhorse white, the grape of Attica and of traditional retsina: naturally low in acidity and very tolerant of heat and drought.
Gouais Blanc
A once-humble, high-yielding white grape from Central Europe that turned out, through chance crossings with Pinot Noir in medieval France, to be the ancestral parent of dozens of major varieties, including Chardonnay and Gamay.
Saint Laurent
A dark, perfumed, Pinot-like red of central Europe, and the second parent of Zweigelt.
Kadarka
A pale, spicy, high-acid red of the Balkans and Hungary, once a pillar of Bull's Blood and now being brought back in Szekszárd and Eger.
Peloursin
A nearly extinct red grape from the Dauphiné, remembered as the mother of Durif, or Petite Sirah.
Neuburger
A soft, nutty Austrian white, a cross of Roter Veltliner and Sylvaner.
Albillo Mayor
A white grape of central Spain, and the mother of Tempranillo.
Aramon Noir
A very productive, light red that filled the Languedoc's vineyards in the 19th century; DNA shows Gouais Blanc as one parent.
Bornova Misketi
A fragrant Muscat of the İzmir area, with rose, orange blossom and citrus, made in styles from dry to sweet.
Çalkarası
A light red grape from Çal, in Denizli, used for pale reds and fresh rosé with strawberry and raspberry.
Chinuri
Kartli's high-acid white, the traditional base of Georgian sparkling wine: wild mint, forest pear and a crisp, green-tinged palate.
Dobričić
An old red grape from the island of Šolta, in Dalmatia, and the second parent of Plavac Mali.
Goruli Mtsvane
Kartli's aromatic white, whose name means 'green grape of Gori': lime, wildflowers and honey, and Chinuri's usual partner in sparkling wine.
Kéknyelű
A rare native of Lake Balaton's volcanic north shore: high in acidity and mineral, and a low-yielding vine that ages into smoky, nutty, honeyed wines.
Mondeuse Blanche
A rare white grape from the alpine Savoie region of France, cultivated today mainly for its historical significance as the other parent of Syrah.
Papazkarası
An old, late-ripening red from East Thrace, medium-bodied and high in acidity, with red fruit, floral notes and spice.
Petit Bouschet
A deeply coloured red bred by Louis Bouschet in the 1820s from Aramon and Teinturier du Cher, and the parent of Alicante Bouschet.
Petit Meslier
A rare, very high-acid white grape from Champagne, one of the seven varieties allowed in the wine and a cross of Gouais Blanc and Savagnin.
Prunelard
An ancient, nearly extinct red grape from southwest France, rediscovered in the 2000s and now known to be one of the two parents of Malbec.
Roter Veltliner
A red-skinned Austrian grape making rich, spicy whites, and a parent, with other grapes, of Neuburger and Rotgipfler, and probably of Zierfandler.
Rotgipfler
A rich, spicy white grown almost only in the Thermenregion south of Vienna, a cross of Roter Veltliner and Savagnin.
St. Georgen
An unnamed old Austrian vine found near Eisenstadt, identified by DNA as the second parent of Grüner Veltliner.
Teran
Istria's dark, high-acid red, grown on iron-rich red soil: dark berries, wild herbs and a firm, fresh grip, and closely tied to Slovenia's Refošk.
Tsitska
A lively, high-acid white of western Georgia, traditionally blended with Tsolikouri and Krakhuna and well suited to sparkling wine.
Tsolikouri
A leading white of western Georgia: citrus, yellow fruit and white plum in a rounded wine, made either fresh or with some of the skins in the Imeretian way.
Vernaccia di San Gimignano
The white grape of the Tuscan hill town of San Gimignano: a crisp, dry wine with a light almond bitterness on the finish.
Zierfandler
A rich, spicy white grown in the Thermenregion, traditionally blended with Rotgipfler, with good acidity.
Axina de Tres Bias
A rare dark-skinned grape, known now as the second parent of Muscat of Alexandria.
Benedicto
An almost unknown Spanish red grape, known only as one parent of Tempranillo.
Blaue Zimmettraube
A rare old red grape of central Europe, known chiefly as the mother of Blaufränkisch.
Calabrese Montenuovo
An obscure red grape from Campania, identified by DNA as the second parent of Sangiovese.
Dureza
A rare, deeply colored red grape from the Ardèche region of France, grown only in small quantities today but notable as one of the two parents of Syrah.
Gros Cabernet
A rare red grape of south-western France, known now as one of the two parents of Carménère.
Madeleine Royale
A rare 19th-century white grape, a cross of Pinot Noir and Trollinger, remembered as the second parent of Müller-Thurgau.
Magdeleine Noire des Charentes
A red grape variety that survives today mainly in ampelographic collections, identified through DNA analysis as a parent of both Merlot and Malbec.
Österreichisch Weiß
An obscure Austrian white grape, now known mainly as the second parent of Sylvaner alongside Savagnin.
Teinturier du Cher
An old French teinturier, or red-fleshed grape, whose intensely coloured juice made it a parent of Petit Bouschet.