Colombard

Colombard is a white wine variety that is used extensively in the Charente region of South Western France, mainly for material to be distilled for Cognac. But it has a wider role in South West France where it is often used for blended wines. It is also quite popular in California and South Africa.

In Australia Colombard is the fifth ranking white variety in terms of volume produced, but almost all of the wine is sold as generic cask wine. The attraction of varieties like Colombard is that they are capable of producing heavy crops of grapes. Under these conditions it is inevitable that the resulting wine will lack flavour and body.

The exception perhaps is Primo Estate whose La Biondina Colombard is highly regarded. This further reinforces the point that many varieties with a reputation for producing large volumes of ordinary wine, with care and skill in the vineyard and winery, can be capable of producing interesting wine.Australian wineries using this variety:

• Angoves Winery Riverland
• Australian Old Vine Wines Riverland
• Carn Estate Murray Darling
• Chateau Champsaur Central Ranges Zone
• De Bortoli Riverina
• Deakin Estate Murray Darling
• Gin Gin Wines Queensland Coastal
• Piromit Wines Riverina
• Primo Estate Adelaide Plains
• Red Tail Northern Rivers Zone
• Rodericks South Burnett
• Salisbury Winery Murray Darling
• Sand Hills Vineyard Central Ranges Zone
• Steels Creek Estate Yarra Valley
• Stuart Range Estate South Burnett
• Sweet Water Hills Wines Sunshine Coast
• Whiskey Gully Wines Granite Belt