matter what color their skins, the great
majority of wine grapes have clear juice. Very
few have dark colored juice; the French call
these types teinturier, literally
"dyers". One of the most famous and
widely-planted is a wine grape cross,
Alicante Bouschet, created by French father and
son vine breeders.
For centuries, until the 1960s, Aramon
was the most widely planted grape in France1. Growers liked
it for two reasons. Foremost is its high productivity, over
20 tons per acre in fertile soils. Second, it is one of the
few vinifera varieties with natural resistance to powdery
mildew. The wine produced from this grape, however, is
extremely light in color, flavor, and alcohol, and it always
requires blending to boost these factors.
In 1824, Louis
Bouschet, attempting to improve its color and flavor yet retain its mildew resistance, crossed Aramon with an ancient
red-juiced vinifera variety, Teinturier du
Cher. He named the result Petit
Bouschet2. In 1865, Louis' son Henri
continued his on father's path, crossing Petit Bouschet with Grenache to
create Alicante Bouschet.
Alicante, as it is often called, became important as a blending grape, particularly in vintages where additional color is needed, and was widely planted all over France. As much as 150,000 acres were producing throughout the country in the mid-1980s and today is the 12th most widely-planted grape in France.
Bouschet is a very productive grape that can
bear crops as large as 12 tons per acre and must
be controlled from its tendency to over crop. In
addition to red flesh and juice, it has thick
and tough skins. The grape's acidity can be
problematic, too high in cooler regions, too low
in warmer ones.
qualities led to high popularity during American
Prohibition, since the fruit shipped well and
Alicante's intense color could stand dilution
and extension with water and sugar to make more
than double the normal wine gallonage per ton of
grapes. Plantings in California reached nearly
30,000 acres by the 1940s, but have since
declined to less than 5,000 acres.
as a blending grape where color and tannin are
needed, only a very few California wineries have
offered Alicante Bouschet as a varietal. On its
own, Alicante Bouschet generally makes wine that
lacks distinction in character and has texture
that is somewhat coarse. Although color is its
main asset, it is also unstable, browning and
Alicante Bouschet Smell and/or Flavor
depends upon individual tasting ability and experience
and is also affected by terroir and seasonal conditions,
as well as viticultural and enological techniques.
This list therefore is
merely suggestive and neither comprehensive nor exclusive.
(Too few tasting notes could be found on Alicante Bouschet to list or summarize typicity...)
One California winery,
Angelo Papagni, of Madera, had the unique
distinction of successfully producing a string
of award-winning and long-lived varietal wines
from Alicante Bouschet, in the 1970s.
1. Carignane became France's most planted wine grape in the 1960's. RETURN
2. Petit Bouschet was moderately successful through the end of the 19th Century and remains planted in North Africa and Portugal. RETURN
1. Charles Sullivan, A Companion to California Wine: An Encyclopedia of Wine and Winemaking from the Mission Period to the Present (University of California Press: Berkeley) 1998
2. L. Peter Christensen, Nick K. Dokoozlian, M. Andrew Walker, James A Wolpert, et all. Wine Grape Varieties in California (University of California, Agricultural and Natural Resources Publications: Oakland) 2003
3. Benjamin Lewin, Wine Myths and Reality, (Vendage Press: Dover, DE) 2010
4. Jancis Robinson (ed), Oxford Companion to Wine, 3rd Edition, (Oxford University Press: London) 2006
5. Jancis Robinson (ed), Jancis Robinson's Guide to Wine Grapes, (Oxford University Press: New York) 1996
6. Steven Spurrier & Michel Dovaz, Academie du Vin, Complete Wine Course (G.P. Putnam & Sons, New York) 1983