white grape · regional specialty
Marsanne
Marsanne commune, Drôme, Rhône-Alpes, France
Say it
mar·sahn
Final -e is silent; -an is nasal in French but rendered as -SAHN for American speakers
On the palate
Body
full
Acidity
medium minus
Aromatics
pronounced
white peachapricotquincealmondhoneysucklebeeswax
How you spot it blind: waxy beeswax-and-almond richness that deepens dramatically with bottle age
The story
First written down · 1781, Northern Rhône, France
DNA analysis confirms a parent-offspring relationship with Roussanne (direction unresolved); the variety takes its name from the commune of Marsanne in the Drôme, roughly 60 km south of Hermitage.
Where it lives
Northern Rhône (Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Saint-Joseph, Saint-Péray) · Languedoc-Roussillon, France · Valais, Switzerland · Victoria, Australia
Shows up as
still whitesparklingHermitageCrozes-HermitageSaint-Péray