pink gris grape · rare
Sauvignon Gris
Bordeaux, France
Say it
soh·veen·yohngree
The -s in Gris is silent; Sauvignon ends with a nasal vowel, no hard -n.
On the palate
Body
medium full
Acidity
medium
Aromatics
medium
white peachapricotgrapefruitlycheepassionfruitpear
How you spot it blind: smoky perfume and richer, rounder texture than Sauvignon Blanc
The story
A pink-skin clonal mutation of Sauvignon Blanc reduced to 10 ha in France by 1958 after phylloxera; recovery began after surviving pre-phylloxera vines were identified in Touraine in the 1980s by grower Jacky Preys.
Family tree: Sauvignon Blanc mutation
Where it lives
Bordeaux (Graves, Pessac-Léognan) · Loire Valley (Touraine, as Fié Gris) · Chile (Maipo Valley, Leyda Valley)
Shows up as
still whitesweet