The (ig)noble Gouais blanc ;-)

WINE TALK
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‘It is particularly ironic that the despised grape Gouais Blanc was not just a parent for several of the world’s best-known and most important varieties, such as > Chardonnay > and Aligoté, it was the maternal parent, providing additional DNA and potentially determining important characteristics of the offspring.’

The ABCers ought to love this… [wink.gif]

http://www.decanter.com/news/news.php?id=293019" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Decanter’s story is pretty incompetent. Here are some comments about it, in jancisrobinson.com, by José Vouillamoz, probably the world’s leading grape geneticist after Carole Meredith retired (to become an outstanding winemaker):

It was rather surprising to say the least to see decanter.com’s story about the ‘news’ that Gouais Blanc is the mother of Chardonnay. Virtually all of this has been known since 1999.

The first surprise was to see that the authors of the paper cited are all new to grape genetics. The second surprise was that no one from INRA Montpellier and UC Davis, the authors of the 1999 paper about Pinot x Gouais, was involved in this study.

The only real ‘news’ added by this paper is the determination of which of Pinot or Gouais Blanc is the mother in each cross. Gouais Blanc turns out to be the mother of Aligoté, Auxerrois, Bachet, Chardonnay, Franc Noir, Gamay Noir, Melon, Romorantin and Sacy, while Pinot is the mother of Aubin Vert, Knipperlé and Roublot. We already knew the parentage; just not which was the mother.

Using maternally inherited chloroplast DNA markers, this is easy to do for any parentage. It has already been done for Cabernet Sauvignon, for example - although this is not mentioned by the authors. It might indeed be interesting to know the mother of a given cross, because grape varieties might inherit rather more of genetic traits from the mother. However, for grapes we still have no idea which traits are exclusively maternally inherited. The authors simply say that maternal inheritance is ‘potentially determining important characteristics of the offspring’. This is true for human beings as well: we all inherit our mitochondrias (organelles having their own DNA, found within each cell) from our mother, but many people resemble their father more.

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I, too, faintly recall hearing something about this a while back. Even so, it’s still fair game to poke fun at the tradition of still labeling certain grapes to be “noble” in light of such genetics:

Noble grapes

The phrase “noble grape” is a classical term used to describe the grapes traditionally associated with the highest quality wines. The term is not as commonly used today, partly because of the proliferation of hybrid grape varieties, and partly because the term originated in France which leads some critics to feel that the term unfairly slights varieties grown in other regions. Historically speaking, the noble grapes comprised only six varieties. The white noble grapes were Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, and > Chardonnay> . The red noble grapes were Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot.[3]

International variety - Wikipedia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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“Historically speaking, the noble grapes comprised only six varieties.” Now - which wine authority ever said that? More proof that Wikipedia is a joke…

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Victor,

Did you happen to get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? neener
Your hyper-criticality over these benign consumer entertainment pieces is somewhat surprising. Are you denying that many books have considered Chardonnay to be a “noble grape,” whereas it’s apparent mother seems to be a ‘non-pedigreed’ commoner? That irony is the sole reason I posted this thread. Forgive me if the two citations don’t rise to your sense of reliable information. [berserker.gif]

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I wasn’t hyper-critical at all. I brought up a very interesting comment by the world’s best current specialist in grape genetics, then I sneered at a very dumb Wikipedia statement. Did you know that gouais blanc is the main ‘ancestor grape’ in Europe and that its progeny includes, not only chardonnay, but also… riesling?

What we know about DNA today makes all preconceived ideas about grape origins obsolete. We all know, for instance, that cabernet sauvignon, one of the six supposed ‘noble varieties’ is a cross between sauvignon blanc and cabernet franc… the latter of which, I guess, is not supposed to be “noble”. And syrah, which everyone except Wikipedia considers a “noble grape”, is a cross between two decidedly modest grape varieties, dureza and mondeuse blanche.

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