A Tour of Wine Grapes: Marsanne

Marsanne 🟡 Photo by Marianne Casamance on Wikimedia Commons Marsanne ( mar-shon ) is a white wine grape from France that has its origins in the Northern Rhône Valley. The grape's cultivation was first recorded in the 16th century. It was formally documented as a distinct varietal in 1781, establishing its status in Rhône winemaking. During the Middle Ages, local monasteries kept the grape alive using it primarily as a blending component long before it was bottled as a single varietal. By the 17th and 18th centuries, White Hermitage (made mostly of Marsanne) was globally famous. U.S. wine connoisseur Thomas Jefferson famously declared it "the first white wine in the world without a single exception." In the late 1860s, Marsanne was exported to Victoria, Australia. Because Europe's vineyards were later devastated by the Phylloxera pest, Australia's now houses the world's oldest living Marsanne vines which were planted in 1927. The grape did not reach California until the 1980s. While Ma

by Marc Kirkpatrick · source ↗