Criolla Grande (also known as Criolla and Criolla Grande Sanjuanina) is a red

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

grape commonly found in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. It is different from the

Chilean wine Chile has a long history in the production of wine, with roots dating back to the 16th century when the Spanish conquistadors introduced ''Vitis vinifera'' vines to the region. In the mid-19th century, French wine variety (botany), varieties s ...

grape

Pais Pais is a red wine grape that has played a prominent role in the Chilean wine industry. Up until the turn of the 21st century, it was Chile's most planted variety until it was overtaken by Cabernet Sauvignon. Today it is most commonly used in the ...

, also known as ''Criolla Chica'', but ampelographers believe that both grapes share a common parent, and it is now listed as a crossing of Mission and Muscat of Alexandria. As of 2006, Criolla was the third most widely planted

Argentine wine Argentina is the fifth largest producer of wine in the world.H. Johnson & J. Robinson: ''The World Atlas of Wine'', pp. 300-301, Mitchell Beazley Publishing 2005 . Argentine wine, as with some aspects of Cuisine of Argentina, Argentine cuisine, h ...

grape (22,500 hectares) after Cereza (30,000 hectares) and the more widely

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is a ...

ed Malbec (24,400 hectares). It is primarily found in the Mendoza region. The grape has pink skin, which is thicker than in its Chilean cousin, Pais, and is used to produce deeply colored white wine. It is sometimes used to produce a light colored ''

rosé A rosé () is a type of wine that incorporates some of the wine color, color from the grape skins, but not enough to qualify it as a red wine. It may be the oldest known type of wine, as it is the most straightforward to make with the Macerati ...

''. The grape is rarely exported outside of Argentina where it is used to produce massive quantities of

box A box (plural: boxes) is a container with rigid sides used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides (typically rectangular prisms). Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or v ...

and jug wines.J. Robinson (ed) ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition pg 210 Oxford University Press 2006

History

The grape belong to the '' Criollas'' group of varieties. Along with Chile's Pais and the Mission grape of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, the grape is believed to be a descendant of the Spanish "common black grape" brought to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

in 1520 by the Spanish

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions o ...

.K. MacNeil ''The Wine Bible'' pg 836 Workman Publishing 2001 Although it has previously been speculated that Criolla Grande as such was brought to the Americas, the presence of Mission in its pedigree makes it likely that the crossing resulting in Criolla Grande took place in America.

Synonyms

Criolla Grande is also known under the synonyms Criolla Grande Sanjuanina, Criolla San Juanino, Criolla Sanjuanina, Italia, Sanjuanina Rosada, and Uva Tierna.Criolla Grande Sanjuanina
, Vitis International Variety Catalogue, accessed 2010-07-14

References

{{Wines Red wine grape varieties Culture of Argentina Argentine wine