Baroque (often spelled Barroque) is a white

French wine French wine is produced throughout all of France in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France is one of the largest wine producers in the world. French wine traces its history to th ...

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

planted primarily in South West France around the Tursan region. It can make full bodied wines with nutty flavors.J. Robinson ''Jancis Robinson's Wine Course'' Third Edition pg 100 Abbeville Press 2003

Ampelographer Ampelography ( ἄμπελος, "vine" + γράφος, "writing") is the field of botany concerned with the identification and classification of grapevines, ''Vitis'' spp. Traditionally this has been done by comparing the shape and colour of th ...

s suspect that the grape maybe a crossing of

Folle Blanche Folle blanche (), also known as Picpoule, Gros Plant, and Enrageat blanc, is a wine grape variety from southwest France. It was the traditional grape variety in Cognac and Armagnac production until the 20th century. Folle blanche is an offsprin ...

(which it shares the

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

''Bordeleza zuria'' with) and

Sauvignon blanc Sauvignon blanc () is a green-skinned grape variety that originates from the city of Bordeaux in France. The grape most likely gets its name from the French words ''sauvage'' ("wild") and ''blanc'' ("white") due to its early origins as an ind ...

.Oz Clarke ''Encyclopedia of Grapes'' pg 42 Harcourt Books 2001

History

While the exact origins of the grape are not clear, ampelographers believe it may be descended from a crossing of the French white grapes Folle Blanche and Sauvignon blanc. While it was once grown throughout southwest France, today its plantings are primarily isolated to the Landes department which contains ''

Vin délimité de qualité supérieure Vin or VIN may refer to: Abbreviations and codes Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Vos Iz Neias?'', American Jewish online news site * Coastal radio station VIN Geraldton (callsign), a station in the former Australian coastal radio service Plac ...

'' (VDQS) wine region of Tursan. In the 20th century, Baroque gained favor among vine growers because of its resistance to

powdery mildew Powdery mildew is a fungus, fungal disease that affects a wide range of plants. Powdery mildew diseases are caused by many different species of Ascomycota, ascomycete fungi in the order Erysiphales. Powdery mildew is one of the easier plant disea ...

which decimated many other

grape varieties This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species, including those unimportant to agriculture, see ''V ...

. However, by the 1980s the grape was virtually on the edge of

extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

because of the ripping out of vineyards in the Landes and converting the land to other agricultural and development enterprises.J. Robinson (ed) ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition pg 65 Oxford University Press 2006 Wine historian and expert

Jancis Robinson Jancis Mary Robinson OBE, ComMA, MW (born 22 April 1950) is a British wine critic, journalist and wine writer. She currently writes a weekly column for the ''Financial Times'', and writes for her website JancisRobinson.com, updated daily. She ...

notes that Baroque was saved from extinction by the efforts of chef

Michel Guérard Michel Robert-Guérard (; 27 March 1933 – 19 August 2024), known as Michel Guérard, was a French chef, author, one of the founders of '' nouvelle cuisine'' and the inventor of '' cuisine minceur''. Early life and education Michel Guérard w ...

, owner of the 3 star Michelin rated restaurant ''Les Prés d'Eugénie'' in

Eugénie-les-Bains Eugénie-les-Bains (; ) is a commune in the Landes department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Eugénie-les-Bains is best known for housing a spa resort and three restaurants, all belonging to chef Michel Guérard, inventor of cuisi ...

. At the Tursan wine estate owned by himself and his wife, Guérard revived interest in the variety by producing an aromatic full-bodied Baroque-based that critics have described as "characterful".

Wine region

The grape is almost exclusive to the South West France wine region of Tursan, with very little plantings of the grape to be found elsewhere in the world.

Wines

Baroque produces a full-bodied wine with noticeable

alcohol level Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as alc/vol or ABV) is a common measure of the amount of alcohol contained in a given alcoholic beverage. It is defined as the volume the ethanol in the liquid would take if separated from the rest of the solution, ...

s and

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is a quantity associated with the gravitational force exerted on the object by other objects in its environment, although there is some variation and debate as to the exact definition. Some sta ...

. It shares many of the same aroma characteristics as Sauvignon blanc.

Synonyms

Over the years, Baroque has had several synonyms including: Barake, Baroca, Baroke, Barroque, Blanc Bordelais, Bordelais, Bordelais blanc, Bordeleza zuria, Boudales, Bourdales, Claverie blanc, Escripet folle, Muscadelle de Nates, Petit Bordelais, Plant Bordelais and Sable blanc.Vitis International Variety Catalogue '
Baroque
"'' Accessed: December 14th, 2009

References

{{reflist White wine grape varieties