Grape Guide
Garanoir
RedGaranoir is a Swiss red crossing of Gamay Noir and Reichensteiner, bred at the Pully research station near Lausanne in 1970 and released in 1990. It gives fruity, softly structured wines with modest acidity, and it is grown almost entirely in Switzerland, mainly in Vaud and Geneva, where it is bottled alone or blended with Gamay and Pinot Noir.
Key characteristics
- Gamay Noir x Reichensteiner cross made in 1970 at the Pully (Changins) station
- Full sibling of Gamaret and Mara, officially released in 1990
- Low vigour with good fertility and early ripening
- Strong tolerance of grey rot on the bunches; does best in cooler vineyard sites
- Roughly 200 ha in Switzerland at the end of the 2000s, VIVC number 16870
Typical flavors
Major regions
Vaud (Switzerland) · Geneva (Switzerland) · Valais (Switzerland) · Three Lakes region (Switzerland) · German-speaking Switzerland · Württemberg (Germany) · Monticello AVA, Virginia (USA)
Also known as
Pully B-28 · B-28 · Gastar (early breeding name) · Granoir (earlier spelling)
Garanoir is one of three sibling red varieties from the same Gamay Noir x Reichensteiner cross, alongside Gamaret and Mara. Of the two that found a real place in Swiss vineyards, it is the lighter and fruitier, with less concentration than Gamaret. The wines show dark red fruit and a measure of spice, supple tannin and an acidity that is often on the low side, which is why growers and cellar masters frequently blend it rather than bottle it alone.
Plantings are concentrated in Switzerland, where the variety covered roughly 200 hectares at the end of the 2000s, most of it in Vaud, Geneva and Valais. Beyond Switzerland it remains a curiosity: a few growers in Württemberg work with it, and in 2023 the United States federal wine regulator accepted Garanoir as a permitted varietal name on American labels. As a varietal bottling it is a regional specialty rather than an export wine.
Garanoir traces to a 1970 cross carried out in Pully, on the edge of Lausanne, at the viticultural research station of Caudoz, a site now run by the Agroscope research organisation. The breeder was André Jaquinet. Gamay Noir served as the mother vine and Reichensteiner, itself a German crossing from the Müller-Thurgau family, as the father. DNA fingerprinting has confirmed this parentage, and the Vitis International Variety Catalogue lists the variety under number 16870.
The same cross produced two other named varieties: Gamaret, which became the better known and more widely planted, and Mara. While still a seedling it carried the label Pully B-28, and it was known as Gastar and then Granoir before the name Garanoir was fixed; legal reasons ruled out keeping the Granoir spelling.
Garanoir was officially released in 1990, the same year as Gamaret. Results from trial plots appeared in the Swiss viticulture journal in the early 1990s. Swiss federal statistics put plantings at around 198 hectares in 2007 and around 203 hectares in 2009, with only modest growth afterwards. Outside Switzerland it has spread little, reaching small plantings in Württemberg and, more recently, Virginia.
Garanoir is a vine of low vigour and good fertility, which suits densely planted, trellised vineyards where pruning and crop thinning keep yields in check. Early ripening means the fruit can be picked before the autumn rains arrive in the lakeside vineyards of western Switzerland. The vine copes well with grey rot on the bunches, a helpful quality in the damp climate of the Swiss plateau. It performs best on cooler sites, which keep acidity intact; where it is warm, acid levels drop even lower and the wine can turn flat and soft. Since it ripens readily and retains colour well, it is sometimes added to give depth to lighter Gamay-based reds.
Varietal Garanoir is usually a medium-bodied, fruit-led red made for early drinking. It shows good colour, red and dark berry fruit, a hint of spice and soft tannins, with lower acidity than Pinot Noir or Gamaret. Stainless steel or large neutral vessels are the usual choice, though some producers add small oak for extra structure. Because acidity can be low, much of the crop goes into blends with Gamay Noir, Pinot Noir or Gamaret, to which it lends colour, fruit and spice. Single-variety bottlings have come from Cave du Paradou in Valais, Domaine de la Vigne Blanche (Geneva) and Cidis in Vaud. In Switzerland it also features in the red blends sold under the Salvagnin name in Vaud.
Where it grows
Vaud
The leading Garanoir region, holding about 57 percent of Swiss plantings according to the national wine promotion body. It goes into varietal wines and into blends with Gamay and Pinot Noir.
Geneva
The second canton in importance, with about 22 percent of the Swiss area. Domaine de la Vigne Blanche is one of the estates that have bottled it as a single-variety wine.
Valais
Holds about 9 percent of Swiss plantings. Cave du Paradou has produced a varietal Garanoir in the canton.
Three Lakes and German-speaking Switzerland
Each has roughly 7 percent of the national area, so plantings in both are small and scattered.
Germany
Grown only in very small amounts in Württemberg, where Weingut Kuhnle near Stuttgart has made a varietal wine.
United States
Approved as a grape name on American wine labels in 2023, after a petition from a grower in Virginia's Monticello AVA; plantings are very small.