Bastardo grape
Encyclopedia
Bastardo is an old variety of red wine grape
Grape
A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...

. It is grown in small amounts in many parts of Western Europe; most famously it is used in Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 port wine
Port wine
Port wine is a Portuguese fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is typically a sweet, red wine, often served as a dessert wine, and comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties...

. It makes deep cherry red wines with high alcohol and flavours of red berry fruits.

History and pedigree

Trousseau Gris
Trousseau Gris
Trousseau Gris is a French variety of white wine grape. It is occasionally found in eastern France and was once widely grown in California under the name Gray Riesling. In cool climates it can produce fresh aromatic wines...

 is a white mutation, occasionally found in Jura and once common in California under the name 'Gray Riesling'.

Genouillet is the result of a cross between Gouais Blanc
Gouais Blanc
Gouais Blanc or Weißer Heunisch is a white grape variety that is seldom grown today but is important as the ancestor of many traditional French and German grape varieties. The name Gouais derives from the old French adjective ‘gou’, a term of derision befitting its traditional status as the grape...

 (Heunisch) and Bastardo.

In 1938 Harold Olmo
Harold Olmo
Dr. Harold Olmo was a pioneering viticulturalist and professor at the University of California, Davis where he created many new grape varieties known today as Olmo grapes. In the 1950s, he helped to establish California's first quarantine facility on the UC-Davis campus to permit California...

 used Trousseau to pollinate the rupestris hybrid Alicante Ganzin
Alicante Ganzin
Alicante Ganzin is a red French wine grape variety. Unlike most Vitis vinifera wine grapes, Alicante Ganzin is a teinturier with dark flesh that produces red juice...

 to produce the Royalty variety.

Bastardo was crossed with the Georgian variety Saperavi
Saperavi
Saperavi is an acidic, teinturier-type grape variety native to Georgia, where it is used to make many of the region's distinctive wines, along with the Alexandreuli and Rkastiteli varieties. Leaves are 3-lobed, large, and roundish...

 to produce the Bastardo Magarachskii variety used in the Crimea
Ukrainian wine
The wine industry of Ukraine is well-established with long traditions. Several brands of wine from Ukraine are exported to bordering countries, the European Union, and North America.-History:...

.

Distribution and Wines

A little is grown in Argentina and in several regions of Spain, including the Canary Islands.

France

It is grown in small amounts in eastern and southern France, notably to stiffen blends with the pale Poulsard
Poulsard
Poulsard is a red French wine grape variety from the Jura wine region. The name Ploussard is used mainly around the town of Pupillin but can appear on wine labels throughout Jura as an authorized synonyms...

 in the Jura
Jura wine
Jura wine, is French wine produced in the Jura département. Located between Burgundy and Switzerland, this cool climate wine region produces wines with some similarity to Burgundy and Swiss wine. Jura wines are distinctive and unusual wines, the most famous being vin jaune, which is made by a...

.

Portugal

It's part of the blend for port wine
Port wine
Port wine is a Portuguese fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is typically a sweet, red wine, often served as a dessert wine, and comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties...

 and also an important variety for red wines in the Dão.

USA

As in Portugal, it is used to make fortified wines in California
California wine
California wine has a long and continuing history, and in the late twentieth century became recognized as producing some of the world's finest wine. While wine is made in all fifty U.S. states, up to 90% of American wine is produced in the state...

. Not much is grown, although some is misidentified as petite sirah.

Vine and Viticulture

It needs hot, dry conditions to do well. The name Trousseau is a reference to the shape of the bunch, it looks 'packed up'.

Synonyms

Bastardo is also known under the synonyms Bastardinha, Bastardinho, Bastardo Do Castello, Bastardo Dos Frados, Bolonio, Capbreton Rouge, Chauche Noir, Cruchenton Rouge, Donzelino De Castille, Gris De Salces, Gros Cabernet, Merenzao, María Ardoña, Maturana Tinta, Verdejo Negro, Pardinho, Pinot Gris De Rio Negro, Semillon Rouge, Tresseau, Triffault, Trousse, Trousseau, Trousseau Gris, Trousseau Noir, Troussot, Trusiaux, Trusseau, Trussiau.

In the literature, it is often confused with Tressot
Tressot
Tressot or Tressot Noir is a variety of dark-skinned wine grape. Tressot has historically been grown in Burgundy but it is now almost extinct. Some small plantations still remain in the Chablis district of Burgundy....

.

External links

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