Piggy-backing off Brig’s comment in another thread:
I’ll go out a limb and say Chenin is produced in the widest and most diverse flavor profile of any grape varietal.
Let’s expand this to red wines, too. What say you?
For my part, I think I nominate Syrah for red. White is harder — Chenin might by my vote, too, but I do give very strong consideration to Sauvignon Blanc.
riesling - planted everywhere; bone dry, sparkling, sweet of varying / all possible degrees.
cabernet sauvignon - planted everywhere, all price ranges and styles of dry wine and some sweet (i assume).
For white I’ll take a flyer on Fiano. Sometimes it drinks like a aromatic variety. Sometimes it drinks like a classic Chard’s next of kin.
For red it almost seems too obvious: Pinot Noir.
Riesling and Pinot Noir for me. I thought about Syrah, but second guessed myself.
Cab Franc might also work, as what it does in the Loire is largely distinct from what it does in much of Bordeaux, and very different from California. Oregon and New York also have some interesting and different Cab Francs.
FWIW I lean Syrah as well
Just seems like Pinot can’t quite produce the same oomph as Syrah in the lower registers, whereas Syrah can be as ethereal and complex in the higher registers
Haven’t tried too many heavily extracted Burgundies (e.g. Roty TVV) so I might well be wrong! Happy to have my blind spots fixed if anyone is offering
I honestly have no idea what you mean here. But it seems that you and Yaacov are speaking more to wine making style.
Brian specifically asked about flavors per variety. The range of flavors for Pinot, even if only speaking of the few better Burgundies I’ve had in my life have displayed as many different flavors as any grape. Likely the most. Factor in New World Pinots which I have more experience with and it’s no contest.
Syrah, fruity tootie to peppery/smoky
Grenache, light crunchy red fruits to dark black fruits
Zin, ripe raspberry to eucalyptus and dark fruits
Viognier, syrupy pineapple to light honeysuckle
Wines are made in four styles of dryness: dry, off dry, semi sweet and sweet. Almost any varietal can be made in any of these four levels.
Yep. I considered including a proviso asking folks to ignore differences in various residual sugar presentations, but ultimately decided not to, as I generally believe threads like this are best left open-ended.
Virtually any varietal can be made in any of those four levels, but how many are made in them?
I’d say Riesling. Chenin is a good runner-up, but doesn’t reach the diversity Riesling is made into: light, airy whites; massive, huge and concentrated whites; bold, oaky whites (admittedly this is more common with Chenin than Riesling); delicate off-dry to medium-sweet Kabinetts; concentrated Spätlesen, Auslesen and late-harvest Rieslings; intensely sweet Beerenauslesen; massively concentrated Trockenbeerenauslesen; piercing ice wines; fresh and zippy sparkling wines; lush, ripe and honeyed sparkling wines; austere and mineral skin-contact whites.
Sure, all grape varieties can be made into those styles, but I think Riesling is the only variety that actually is made into all those different styles.
Red grape varieties is a bit harder, since red wines show a bit less diversity. While most varieties can be made into most of the styles, very few are (successfully) made into more than one or two. I think that the following two varieties show the most diversity:
Tempranillo
Pinot Noir
However, even though Pinot Noir can be made into sweet dessert wines, it seems extremely uncommon - for example I have +11,000 notes in CT, and not a single one of them is on a Pinot Noir dessert wine. It seems that if wine producers are going to be making red dessert wines, it’s not going to be made from Pinot Noir - and if they have Pinot Noir, they’re not going to be making them into a dessert wine. So the jury is still out there with these two varieties, but I really can’t think of any other red variety that would come close to these two varieties. Well, Nebbiolo, perhaps. But Cab Sauvignon or Franc? Nah. Syrah? Not really.
I was just thinking of this, along with nebbiolo and sangiovese: both can really straddle the range, but because they aren’t planted much outside of their regions, don’t readily come to mind.
It is uncommon, though I have had Pinot Noir Icewine from British Columbia, and Spâtburgunder Beerenauslese from Germany. Having tried them I would specifically not seek them out, but they do exist.
I, too, have had Spätburgunder Beerenauslese. However, I didn’t count it among dessert Pinot Noirs I’ve tasted, since it was Beerenauslese Trocken. Not Trockenbeerenauslese, Beerenauslese Trocken. Nothing dessert there.
And not stuff I would recommend. 
Mine was in fact a sweet wine. Weird sweet wine.
I’m going with Syrah for red and Chardonnay for white.
Syrah can succeed across a wide range of styles, from ethereal and fragile to the cult-y iron fist velvet glove ‘big red’ approach. Moreover, Syrah’s intrinsic complexity is quite high–in the more transparent representation it can be as complex as any other variety, in my opinion. And it grows everywhere.
Chardonnay is such a blank canvas that it’s up to the winemaker how they want to represent the grape. Fresh, stainless steel fermented, non-ML or barrel fermented, sur lees with battonage butter bomb? Anything on the spectrum can work. Though I don’t feel like Chardonnay necessarily has a really expressive aromatic imprint. Chard also grows everywhere.
Pinot Noir receives honorable mention, but personally I do not find ‘Power Pinot’ very compelling. It’s like squeezing a McMansion squeezed onto 1/4 acre lot–you can do it, but it feels crowded and awkward. Nebbiolo is also complex and diverse, but its limited footprint outside of Piedmont and Lombardy thus far limits its overall spectrum a bit.
I definitely get the Chenin and Riesling votes as well. They span dry to sweet, and grow everywhere. My vote for Chard is more of a lean in that direction–it’s not a runaway winner in my mind.
Chenin, as I originally stated, and Otto makes an excellent argument for Riesling. He may change my thoughts.
Red is tough… There are good arguments above but nothing is an obvious stand out.
I think Chenin and Riesling are a toss up for the exact reason you called out: Riesling and Chenin can both produce world class wines from bone dry through dessert wines and also sparkling, with Riesling doing light airy wines much more capably, but Chenin better with oak and its character is strong enough that it shines through better when blended with other varieties.
I’d vote for Riesling too.
Red? I’d go for Pinot Noir … think about range from an effervescent Marie Courtin BdN Champagne to a dense Pisoni fruit bomb from Central CA coast.
Without a doubt it’s Barbera for me. The tremendously high natural acidity makes for a range of styles from a light fruity wine to a dense medium to full body red. Drink one like a light red with a slight chill the other with a roast out of the oven.
Tom
Your comment reminded me about this classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS-zEH8YmiM&t=31s