Grape Guide
Vaccarèse
RedVaccarèse, registered in France as Brun Argenté, is a rare black grape of the southern Rhône, first recorded near Avignon in 1538. Only a few hectares survive in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and roughly a dozen across France, where it serves as a minor blending component that adds floral lift, tannic grip and a counterweight to the alcohol of Grenache.
Key characteristics
- Authorised in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, one of the appellation's traditional minor reds
- Fertile, mid to late ripening vine with large clusters and large blue-black berries
- Sensitive to bunch rot and reputed to be prone to powdery mildew
- Placed in the Sérine ampelographic group, but no parentage has been proven
- Roughly 11 to 12 ha recorded in France, and none elsewhere until the 2010s
Typical flavors
Major regions
Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Vaucluse) · Chusclan (Gard) · Côtes du Rhône and Côtes du Rhône Villages · Gigondas · Vacqueyras · Paso Robles (California)
Also known as
Brun Argenté (official French name) · Camarèse or Camarèze (Gard · Chusclan) · Vacarèse or Vaccarèze (southern Rhône · Châteauneuf-du-Pape) · Camares du Gard
Vaccarèse is a black-skinned vine of the southern Rhône that has never been planted widely, yet it has remained on the authorised lists of the region's most important appellations for generations. French regulations and the national variety register call it Brun Argenté; around Châteauneuf-du-Pape growers say Vaccarèse, and in the Gard village of Chusclan it is Camarèse. The vine carries large clusters of large, round, blue-black berries and ripens late, which suits hot, dry hillsides.
In the glass it gives wines of moderate to deep colour with floral and herbal aromatics, spice and a firm tannic frame. Its traditional job is as a seasoning rather than a lead: a small share adds perfume and structure and can dilute the high alcohol of Grenache. A few producers in France and California have recently bottled it alone or almost alone, as a curiosity.
The oldest known record dates from 1538 at Saint-Saturnin-lès-Avignon, where a document names the variety under a form of Vaccarèse beside two other vine names, one of them Bourboulenc. Later mentions cluster around Avignon, which points to the lower Vaucluse as its birthplace. The name probably derives from the Vaccarès lagoon area of the Camargue. Camarèse is documented from 1806 and may allude to Camarès in the Aveyron, a place from which the vine could have been carried to the Gard. The name Brun Argenté reaches print only in 1909; it means brown silver, a reference to the dark berries and to the silvery down on the underside of the leaves. Usage is local: Vaccarèse belongs to the Châteauneuf-du-Pape area, Camarèse to the Chusclan area, and Brun Argenté is the wider and official name.
No parentage has been demonstrated. Its microsatellite profile is held in the international variety database, but no parents or offspring are recorded. Ampelographers place it in the Sérine group, the Rhône family that includes Syrah and Muscardin, on the basis of vine and leaf characters rather than proven kinship. In the vineyard it is easily mistaken for Cinsaut.
Plantings in France have dwindled over the decades, to roughly 10 to 12 ha by 2008. Outside France the variety did not exist until cuttings from the Beaucastel collection cleared quarantine at Tablas Creek in Paso Robles in 2015.
Brun Argenté is a fertile vine that needs short pruning to keep crops in check. It ripens mid to late season and does best on hot, well-exposed sites where vigour is naturally low; deep, rich soils suit it poorly. Clusters are large and the berries are large and blue-black, so in the vineyard it can resemble Counoise and Cinsaut. It is sensitive to bunch rot and is reputed to be vulnerable to powdery mildew, which may help explain why it never spread beyond its home area. In dry climates such as Paso Robles rot pressure is low; the first Californian vines, planted in 2017 on a west-facing slope, gave a small crop in 2019 picked at 22.4 degrees Brix with a pH of 3.50.
Wines are dry and still. Colour is moderate in the Rhône, where the variety is blended, but a varietal wine from California is a deep purple. Aromas run to violet and rose, black cherry, pine needle, juniper and dried herbs, with tobacco and spice on the palate. Body is medium and tannins are firm, in the Rhône often described as quite tannic. One Châteauneuf-du-Pape bottling made from 90 percent Vaccarèse with Grenache shows cedar, brandied cherry, herbes de Provence and bitter chocolate, with softer tannins than the variety's reputation suggests. In Chusclan it goes into rosé, blended with Grenache. In Châteauneuf-du-Pape its place is within the small group of minor varieties that make up the last ten percent or so of an estate blend. Ageing potential remains largely untested.
Where it grows
Châteauneuf-du-Pape
One of the appellation's traditional red varieties, but only about 4 ha were planted around 2009, roughly 0.1 percent of the vineyard area. Château de Beaucastel counts it among the minor varieties in its blend, and Château des Fines Roches made a 2016 cuvée of 90 percent Vaccarèse and 10 percent Grenache, about 1,000 bottles.
Chusclan (Gard)
Here the grape is called Camarèse and is grown mainly for rosé, blended with Grenache at no more than 20 percent and usually less. This is where most of France's small remaining area is found.
Other southern Rhône appellations
The variety appears among the permitted grapes of Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Rasteau, Cairanne, Beaumes de Venise, Vinsobres, Côtes du Rhône and Côtes du Rhône Villages, but it appears on labels only rarely and is planted in tiny amounts.
Paso Robles, California
Tablas Creek planted 0.66 acre in 2017 from cuttings of the Beaucastel collection. The first harvest in 2019 yielded about 175 cases and led to what appears to be the first varietal bottling of the grape in the United States, released in 2021.