Until very recently this variety was not known to be used commercially in Australia. It is now suspected that some vineyards in Australia which thought they were planting Albarino may have in fact been planting Savignin.

Savignin was previously grown almost exclusively in the Jura region of Eastern France, a long way from Spain, Albarino's home. Bests at Great Western has a vine or two in it's nursery block.

Identifying grape varieties is not a straightforward task. There are clonal variations which make the job difficult. If the vines are grown in a different environment the vines make take on different characteristics and growth forms. Viruses are quite common in grape vines, they can have profound effects on the appearance of the vine.

The specialists who sort all of this out are called ampelographers. In the past they relied on systematic examination of the morphological charteristics of the vine, the berries etc. In more recent years DNA profiling has added a more objective data, but ampelography is still a complex matter.

Savagnin Wines

The most famous Savagnin wines are the Vin Jaune of the Jura region in Eastern France. Vin Jaune is a sherry like wine and it seems quite an anomaly in a cool climate wine region. This aromatic variety is also used to make still and sparkling wines, often from high altitude vineyards.

Accidents in Varietal Identification

There have been many accidents in vine identification. This was quite understandable in the nineteenth century when the introduction of plant material was fairly haphazard. Nowadays we are a litle surprised when this sort of thing happens.

Chile's wine industry was based on a variety they thought was Merlot. In fact the "merlot"vineyards there were nearly all a rare Bordeaux variety called Carmenere. When the naming issue was resolved the pragmatic Chileans said "We don't care! It makes good wine and were sticking with it." Nowadays they proudly label the wine Carmenere and are doing quite well out of it.

A similar thing happened in Western Australia. A few wineries planted what they thought was Sangiovese. After a couple of years the vines were found to be a rare variety called Carnelian. This story had a happy ending for some wineries who liked the wine and have marketed it under its true varietal name.

Let's hope that there is some sort of happy ending for those who have pushed the envelope and planted a new white wine variety (whatever it turns out to be)in Australia.