What is an autochthonous grape variety?

An autochthonous or endemic grape variety is a vine variety from a specific terroir. They are characteristic of a particular grape. They are adapted to a specific soil and geography, allowing them to bring out all their typicality.

Today, only ten of the 80 grape varieties represent more than 70% of the French vineyard area. According to the OIV, "one third of the French vineyard is occupied by just three varieties: Merlot (13.9% of the surface area), the symbol of the Bordeaux terroir and the leading variety planted in France, Ugni Blanc (10.2%) and Grenache Noir (10%), the symbol of the French Mediterranean. An impressive figure: 50 grape varieties form the basis of 99% of the world's wines! These are Merlot, Cabernet-Sauvignon and Chardonnay, each covering more than 200,000 hectares of vineyards worldwide.

These figures show the evolution of the supremacy of the major international grape varieties over the last few decades. In France, we are witnessing a standardisation of grape varieties in our regions where diversity is traditionally important. One explanation for this standardisation is historical. Phylloxera, detected in France in the second half of the 1860s, led to the abandonment of a large part of the traditional, very fragile grape varieties. The latter were preferred to easy and productive grape varieties grown in the lowlands with high yields. The main ones are Merlot, Ugni and Grenache. Then came the so-called "selection" grape varieties from other regions: Syrah, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc. The quality of the production takes precedence, proof of the choice of these grape varieties. This inevitably leads to the exclusion of old varieties from the main production trends. The memory of the ancient wine history of the regions is as if erased by decades of mass wine production.

New approaches:

This means that today we can observe that the logics of differentiation are changing more or less rapidly. The development of these varieties can be a factor of innovation and growth for small and medium-sized wine companies. These varieties can be a source of originality for a vineyard. Innovation is all the stronger when it is anchored in a territory thanks to regional and local specificities. As we saw at Vinexpo Bordeaux last May, it is typically the indigenous grape varieties of Georgia and Croatia that are enjoying growing success. New wines that no one has tasted for 50 or 100 years are attracting an ever-wider audience.  To help preserve the plant heritage and allow the development of indigenous grape varieties, the ideal is to erase what is known in terms of taste. Don't try to compare yourself to well-known wines, but rather widen your circle of references.