Counoise

Counoise is a rare, late-ripening red grape of the southern Rhône, prized less for colour or weight than for the spice, acidity and fragrant lift it brings to a blend. Thin-skinned and light in tannin, it makes a pale to medium red of fresh red-berry fruit, black and white pepper and a distinctive peppery, savoury bite, at modest alcohol. Its greatest role is as a minor but valued component of Châteauneuf-du-Pape — one of the thirteen grape varieties permitted there — where a small proportion adds spice, acidity and perfume to wines led by Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre. Never widely planted, it survives in the vineyards of the Rhône and Languedoc and has found a small second home among Rhône-variety growers in California, completing the classic southern French set alongside Cinsault, Carignan and Vaccarèse.