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Aglianico -- Robust, quality southern Italian red grape variety found mainly on the volcanic slopes of Campania and Basilicata in southern Italy.
Aleatico -- Italian red variety with Muscat-like fragrance grown in southern Italy on Elba and Corsica. It is also grown in the central Asian republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Alicante Bouschet -- Like carignan, this is planted mainly for its deep color and known as Garnacha Tintorera (Grenache to dye for) in Spain.
Baga -- This is the main red variety in the Bairrada region of Portugal (also known as Tinta Bairrada), where it produces reds with a distinctively honeyed, and beeswax character.
Barbera -- Is widely planted in Italy as the Sangiovese grape, but grows best in the hills around Alba and Asti in Italy's northwest. Barbera is a variety whose style varies considerably according to yield. When it's low-yielding and matured in small oak casks, it can be concentrated and rich with delicious cherry flavors. It is also capable of ageing well. In high yields it's more of a soft, everyday red whose high acidity makes it ideal for relatively rich dishes. Outside Italy, Barbera is widely planted in California, and in Argentina where it can be juicy with a cherryish flavor and a very good partner for pasta, risotto and pizza.
Cabernet Franc -- If Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are, respectively, Bordeaux's king and queen, Cabernet Franc its prince. Ripening earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon, it acts both as great blender with its special fragrance and at the same time as a form of insurance policy. On the cooler, clay soils of the Right Bank, it forms the backbone of many of the supple delicious blackcurrant and red berry fruit. Outside Bordeaux it's the major red grape of the Loire, where it is more herbaceous in style, as it tends to be in northeast Italy. The name used for it in the middle Loire is Breton. It's also grown in California, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.
Cabernet Sauvignon -- Cabernet Sauvignon is responsible for many of the world's greatest wines and is considered the grandest of all red wine varieties. This thick-skinned, late-ripening variety performs best in the warm, gravelly soils of the Médoc area in Bordeaux, usually blended with lesser amounts of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. Cabernet can be herbaceous when a little unripe with capsicum notes, and blackcurrant or cassis-like with cedar, musky and spicy qualities. Its deep-color and assertive tannins along with its affinity to oak allows the wine to improve in the bottle over years if not decades. It is equally capable of producing affordable, everyday reds in regions like the south of France's pays d'Oc. Recently South Africa, New Zealand and Argentina are laying claim to some very good blends and varietals made from Cabernet Sauvignon.
Canaiolo -- Grown widely throughout central Italy but best known as a minor blending partner to Sangiovese in Chianti wines, although no longer a compulsory ingredient.
Carignan -- The is one of the most widely planted grape varieties in France. This important red grape abounds as a bush vine in the vineyards of southern France, where it is mostly used as a blender in Languedoc's major appellations of Corbières and Minervois. At low yields, and vinified by carbonic maceration, it is capable of producing good, rustic reds. In Catalonia, Spain it is known as Cariñena, and in Rioja, as Mazuelo. In Sardinia, it is known as Carignano del Sulcis which is an attractively herby wine. It is widely planted in California and South America.
Carmenère -- This variety pretty much died out in Bordeaux after phylloxera but has since been revived in Chile, where it is also known as Grande Vidure.
Cinsaut -- Southern Rhône variety, aka Cinsault, used in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Is also popular in South Africa.
Corvina -- Grown in Italy, it is a late-ripening grape in used in Valpolicella and the powerful Veronese specialty reds of Amarone and Recioto.
Dolcetto -- Not sweet despite the sweet-sounding name. This is an everyday Italian variety grown in northwest Italy. Its low acidity and tannins make it a perfect match for risotto and pasta. Made for drinking young, it has vibrant plum and licorice-like fruitiness. Some producers make a more serious, richer style which can improve with age for as long as five years. Also found in limited quantities in Argentina and Australia.
Dornfelder -- Colorful, early-ripening red grape produces fruity and appealing reds in Germany. Also grown to a limited extent in England.
Freisa -- Another light Italian variety from Piedmont with a slight raspberry tang and is produced as a still wine or a sparkling red wine.
Gaglioppo -- The main red grape variety of Calabria in southern Italy, whose robust tannins and rich flavors have earned it a reputation as 'the Barolo of the South'.
Gamay -- Gamay is ‘the’ Beaujolais grape, and carries with it an inferiority complex next to the Red burgundy grape, Pinot Noir. It's a pity because when it's good, Gamay can make a delicious, juicy everyday red with refreshing acidity and flavors ranging from strawberry and cherry to hints of banana. In the ten Beaujolais crus, it's also capable of making a more serious, age worthy red. Also grown with moderate success in the Loire. Also grown in California, it is known as Valdiguié.
Grenache/Garnacha -- One of the world's most widely planted grapes, Grenache is a quintessentially Mediterranean red variety which does best as a low yielding bush vine. It produces powerful, warming, raspberryish reds whose greatest expression, from old, low-yielding vines, is to be found in Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Château Rayas) in France, and in Australia's Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. It also makes good fortified reds as in Banyuls, Rivesaltes and Maury. Known in Spain as Garnacha Tinta, where it's widely planted, particularly in Rioja and Priorat. It's also grown in California and Italy.
Grignolino -- Native of the same northwestern Italian alpine foothills as Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo, it produces youthful, everyday reds with attractive aromas.
Go To Glossary of Red Grapes from M to Z
