Fer
Encyclopedia
Fer is a red French wine
French wine
French wine is produced in several regions throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France has the world's second-largest total vineyard area, behind Spain, and is in the position of being the world's largest wine producer...

 grape variety that is grown primarily in South West France
South West France (wine region)
South West France or in French Sud-Ouest, is a wine region in France covering several wine-producing areas situated respectively inland from, and south of, the wine region of Bordeaux...

 and is most notable for its role in the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée
Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée
Appellation d’origine contrôlée , which translates as "controlled designation of origin", is the French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, all under the auspices of the government bureau Institut National...

(AOC) wines of Gaillac, Marcillac and Béarn but can also be found as minor component in the wines of Madiran, Cabardès and Bergerac. The grape is also featured in red blends from several vin de pays
Vin de pays
Vin de pays is a French term meaning "country wine". Vins de pays are a step in the French wine classification which is above the table wine classification, but below the VDQS and Appellation d'origine contrôlée classifications...

regions in the south west with significant plantings coming from the Aveyron
Aveyron
Aveyron is a département in southern France named after the Aveyron River.- History :Aveyron is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790....

 department.

According to wine expert Oz Clarke
Oz Clarke
Robert "Oz" Clarke is a British wine writer, television presenter and broadcaster.-Biography:Clarke’s parents were a chest physician and a nursing sister. He was brought up near Canterbury with a brother and a sister. Clarke became a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral and subsequently won a choral...

, wine made from Fer is often characterized by its perfumed aromas of currant
Currant
Currant may refer to:Plants:* Ribes, genus of berry plants, e.g. blackcurrant, redcurrant* Zante currant, dried Black Corinth grapes; smaller than raisins* Currant tomato, Solanum pimpinellifolium, small tomato species...

s and red fruit, soft tannins, and concentration in fruit. The grape is not related to the clone of Malbec
Malbec
Malbec is a purple grape variety used in making red wine. The grapes tend to have an inky dark color and robust tannins, and are long known as one of the six grapes allowed in the blend of red Bordeaux wine. The French plantations of Malbec are now found primarily in Cahors in the South West...

 known as Fer that is widely planted throughout Argentina.

The name Fer is French for iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

 (Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 Ferrum), a reference to the very hard and "iron-like" wood of the vine's above ground canopy. Because of this very hard wood stock, the vine can be difficult to prune
Prune
A prune is any of various plum cultivars, mostly Prunus domestica or European Plum, sold as fresh or dried fruit. The dried fruit is also referred to as a dried plum...

 and trellis.

History

Fer has a long tradition in the southwestern wine regions of France and is possibly indigenous
Indigenous (ecology)
In biogeography, a species is defined as native to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention. Every natural organism has its own natural range of distribution in which it is regarded as native...

 to the area. For centuries many of the full-bodied red wines of the many wine-producing communes often included some percentage of Fer in the blend. The grape was prized for the color and concentration it added even though viticulture
Viticulture
Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...

 and cultivation could be difficult due to its extremely hard wood stock. Though the grape developed numerous synonyms throughout the region, the "iron-like" hardness of the vine's wood gave rise to its primary name, Fer, which is also the French word for iron.

Wine regions

While plantings of Fer can be found through southwest France, the grape is most widely planted in the Aveyron department where it is featured in the wines of Marcillac
Marcillac
Marcillac is a commune in the Gironde department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-Population:...

, Entraygues and Estaing
Estaing, Aveyron
Estaing is a commune in the Aveyron department in southern France.Located in the north of the Aveyron department in the Midi-Pyrénées region, Estaing is considered as one of the most picturesque villages in France. The village is very quiet during the winter months; it is in the summer that the...

 where the grape is also known as Mansois. In Madiran
Madiran
Madiran is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France.It is the centre of a wine producing area.-Madiran wine:Wine is produced around Madiran under three Appellations d'Origine Contrôlées : Madiran for powerful red wines primarily from the grape variety Tannat, Pacherenc du...

 and Béarn
Béarn
Béarn is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three Basque provinces of Soule, Lower Navarre, and Labourd, the principality of Bidache, as well as small parts of Gascony, it forms in the...

, Fer is also as known Pinenc and while once more prominently utilized, now is usually only a complementary player to Tannat
Tannat
Tannat is a red wine grape, historically grown in South West France in the Madiran AOC and is now one of the most prominent grapes in Uruguay, where it is considered the "national grape". It is also grown in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Peru, and in Italy's Puglia region where it is used as a...

, Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley...

 and Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc is one of the major black grape varieties worldwide. It is principally grown for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Bordeaux style, but can also be vinified alone - as in the Loire's Chinon...

. In the Tarn department, it can be found in the AOC wines of Gaillac
Gaillac
Gaillac is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France.-Geography of Gaillac:Gaillac is a town situated between Toulouse, Albi and Monatauban. It has gained a large amount of recognition due to the wines that bear the towns name. The Tarn river runs along the border of the town by the...

 where it known under the old synonyms of Brocol and Braucol. Other AOC wines that include Fer among their permitted varieties is Cabardès in the Languedoc-Roussillon wine region and Bergerac
Bergerac, Dordogne
Bergerac is a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Dordogne department in southwestern France.-Population:-Economy:The region is primarily known for wine and tobacco...

 in the Dordogne
Dordogne
Dordogne is a départment in south-west France. The départment is located in the region of Aquitaine, between the Loire valley and the High Pyrénées named after the great river Dordogne that runs through it...

 which is essentially the northernmost reach of the grape.

Outside of France, growers in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 thought that they had plantings of Fer under cultivation but in the late 20th century it was discovered that the 3,700 acres (1,700 hectares) of the vine was actually a clone of Malbec which, though a French grape itself, has no known relation to Fer.

Wine styles

Wine expert Jancis Robinson
Jancis Robinson
Jancis Mary Robinson OBE, MW is a British wine critic, journalist and editor of wine literature. She currently writes a weekly column for the Financial Times, and writes for her website jancisrobinson.com...

 describes the wines made from Fer as "interestingly perfumed" with a rhubarb
Rhubarb
Rhubarb is a group of plants that belong to the genus Rheum in the family Polygonaceae. They are herbaceous perennial plants growing from short, thick rhizomes. They have large leaves that are somewhat triangular-shaped with long fleshy petioles...

 aroma note. Typically the wines are often full-bodied with dark ruby colors and concentrated fruit flavors. Robinson notes that the predominantly Fer composed wines of Marcillac can be tannic and rustic with smokey aromas.

Synonyms

Over the years Fer and its wines have been known under various synonyms including Arech, Arrouya, Bequignaou, Béquignol, Bois droit, Braucol, Brocol, Caillaba, Camarouge, Camirouch, Chalamoncet, Chalosse noir, Chausset, Couahort, Cruchenit, Estronc, Estrong, Fer bequignaou, Fer Noir, Ferre, Folle Rouge, Here, Herrant, Herre, Mances, Mansoi, Mansois, Mauran, Moura, Mourach, Noir brun, Panereuil, Petit Fer, Petit here, Petit Mourastel, Petite here, Piec, Piek, Pienc, Pinenc, Plant de fer, Queufort, Salebourg, Saoubade, Saumances, Saumansois, Saumences, Scarcit, Veron and Verron.
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