Owing to the screen size of your device, you may obtain a better viewing experience by rotating your device a quarter-turn (to get the so-called “panorama” screen view).
owlcroft logo
An Owlcroft Company
web site.


 Click to 
 email us. 


If you like this site,
please post a link to it!

This is…

That Useful Wine Site

Search, or just roll your cursor over the colored boxes farther below.
Advertisements appear before actual Search results;
click the “x” to dismiss Search-results block.

  Advertisement:


  Site navigation:

  Advertisement:


  Site navigation:

The Négrette Grape


Quick page jumps:


About Négrette

(Synonyms: Cap de More, Dégoûtant, Morelet, Morillon, Mourrelet, Négralet, Négret, Négret de Gaillac, Négret du Tarn, Négrette de Fronton, Noirien, Pinot St George, Vesparo Noir.)

Background

Map showing the Fronton AOP.

Négrette is a red-wine grape whose origins are clouded by time, but which has been cultivated in the Gaillac region of France since (as Jancis Robinson puts it) time immemorial. It is nowadays cultivated in southwestern France, notably around the town of Fronton, which gives its name to the Fronton appellation. In that region, Négrette must be at least 50% of a grower’s vineyard. The variety is rarely seen outside its AOP, save for some in San Benito County, California (where it was long known as Pinot St George).

Words that tend to crop up in describing Négrette wines are supple and perfumed. Many sources say that the wines should be drunk young, but others say that they can take at least some bottle age. Ya pays yer money an’ ya takes yer chances.

Négrette wines are normally quite deep in color. Their “perfume” seems, by report, to be very much of violets, but with all sorts of other interesting spice/herb aromas, and tastes. While Négrette is often used in blends, most reviewers seem firm on the point that its distinctive qualities get rapidly submerged by almost any blend partner, so monovarietal Négrettes are the ones to cherish. The wines are generally low in tannins and acidity, leading to that oft-mentioned “supple” or “silky” quality so much associated with the variety.

Factoid: Négrette is—with tedious regularity—said to have been brought to Europe from Cyprus by the Knights Templar. Maybe so, but there’s no evidence for it.

Return to the page top. ↑


Some Descriptions of Négrette Wines

Return to the page top. ↑


Some Négrettes to Try

(About this list.)

As is too often the case, we have a delightful wine variety that, because it is not well known in the U.S., is hard to find at decent pricing and availability. In fact, we could only find a couple of Négrettes under $20 (and not much over it).


Le Roc “La Folle” Noire d’Ambat Fronton

• This wine’s Wine Searcher “Reviews” page.
• This wine’s CellarTracker review pages.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by Wine Searcher.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by 1000 Corks.



Chateau Coutinel “Et Ici Chez Elle à Toulouse On L’Appelle Négrette” Rouge
(A Fronton wine.)

• This wine’s Wine Searcher “Reviews” page.
• This wine’s CellarTracker review pages.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by Wine Searcher.
• Retail offers of this wine listed by 1000 Corks.

Return to the page top. ↑


For a Splurge

We could find no reasonably available Négrette wines better enough than those listed above as to justify a “splurge” price.

Return to the page top. ↑



  Advertisement:


  

  Advertisement:


  



Disclaimers  |  Privacy Policy

owl logo This site is one of The Owlcroft Company family of web sites. Please click on the link (or the owl) to see a menu of our other diverse user-friendly, helpful sites. Pair Networks logo Like all our sites, this one is hosted at the highly regarded Pair Networks, whom we strongly recommend. We invite you to click on the Pair link or logo for more information on hosting by a first-class service.
(Note: All Owlcroft systems run on Ubuntu Linux and we heartily recommend it to everyone—click on the link for more information).

All content copyright © 2024 The Owlcroft Company
(excepting quoted material, which is believed to be Fair Use).

This web page is strictly compliant with the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) Protocol v1.0 (Transitional) and the W3C Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Protocol v3 — because we care about interoperability. Click on the logos below to test us!



This page was last modified on Saturday, 30 October 2021, at 11:26 pm Pacific Time.