Barbera
Grown all over Italy producing a number of styles of mainly astringent, lighter wines with a bitter cherry smell and taste.

Cabernet Franc
Raspberries and strawberries with the occasional touch of potato peelings are the characteristics of this grape, a cousin to the noble Cabernet Sauvignon, with which it is often blended to add breadth to the overall flavours.

Cabernet Sauvignon
The back bone of much Bordeaux red (Claret) whose tell tale smell and tastes of blackcurrant, mint and green peppers can sometimes be extended to include hints of pencil shavings and even dark chocolate and tobacco.

Carmenère
Once found in Bordeaux, but now mainly planted in South America where it produces soft, fruity wines.  

Gamay
More correctly called Gamay Noir au Jus Blanc (black Gamay with white juice) this grape is found most frequently in Beaujolais where it makes easy drinking, thirst quenching wines with cherry and strawberry flavour.

Beaujolais Nouveau
can be dominated by a mixture of pear, often banana, and bubblegum tastes from the special carbonic maceration technique from which it is made.    

Grenache Noir/Garnacha Tinto
Grenache in France, or Garnacha in its native Spain, is invariably blended but does produce peppery dry wines with marked raspberry tones.    

Malbec
In France the grape is used to make vigorous plummy wines that can have blackberry flavours. In the Argentine, where it is also widely planted, the wines can be more jammy, fleshier and often with hints of bitter chocolate on the finish.     

Merlot
A popular grape planted all over the world. At its best in Pomerol and St Emilion in Bordeaux where it produces aromas and flavours of plums, roses and spicy rich fruit cake.        

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo
A grape that creates generous, spicy wine of the same name in the Italian Marches; not to be confused with the Vina Nobile di Montepulciano grown in Tuscany and used to make Chianti.    

Mourvèdre
A thick skinned grape that produces a perfumed ‘chewy, meaty’ wine, high in alcohol, with blackberry flavours, invariably used as part of a blend.

Nebbiolo
A grape from Piedmont in northern Italy used to make Barolo and Barbaresco. A tough, tannic grape whose mature wines can show prunes, fruit cake, violets, roses and even tar and bitter chocolate.    

Petit Verdot
Used in minute quantities in the Mèdoc region of Bordeaux to add substance to the blends with its dark colour and peppery, spicy flavours. Now planted quite extensively in Australia as well as Chile and California.    

Pinotage
A South African cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsaut (called Hermitage in the Cape) that produces a robust pepper and spice wine with a warm, red berry character.    

Pinot Meunier
A cousin of the Pinot Noir used extensively to make Champagne. Its name comes from the flour-like markings on the underside of the leaf. Meunier is the French for miller  

Pinot Noir
The hardest vine to grow and the most difficult wine to make, this is the grape that produces red Burgundy. Look for a cunning combination of nuts, raspberries, cherries, strawberries and even violets; when fully mature can have powerful aromas reminiscent of a well-rotted midden. Also a key component of Champagne.    

Sangiovese
Italy’s dominant grape, an integral part of the Chianti blend, that produces wines with bitter cherry, spicy, tobacco and herby aromas and flavours.

Shiraz/Syrah
The grape said to have originally come from the city of Shiraz in ancient Persia. Brought by Greek merchants to France, where the French were unable to pronounce the name, it became known as Syrah. In the New World it is now called Shiraz. In cooler climates where the fruit is less ripe it has red fruit characteristics with mint, green olives and white pepper. The New World’s warmer climate fully ripens the fruit to develop blackberry and blackcurrant flavours with liquorice and smoky tones. Bottle-ageing can even develop tell tale hints of burnt rubber.  

Tannat
Almost entirely limited to the Madiran region of south-west France, this is a highly tannic grape that can develop fine-textured, earthy wines.  

Tempranillo
Spain’s answer to France’s Cabernet Sauvignon and is widely planted under numerous pseudonyms.Strawberry, spices, concentrated black cherries and even soft buttery toffee are some of the characteristics of this grape.  

Zinfandel
A black grape with a red flesh found mainly in California where it produces rich, spicy, full-bodied supple reds with ripe berry fruits. Bled off from the main vat after 24 hours and made as a white wine, it creates summer pudding-tasting pink or blush wines.