Calitor

Calitor
Grape (Vitis)
Calitor (Blavette) in Viala & Vermorel
Color of berry skin	Noir
Species	Vitis vinifera
Also called	Calitor noir and other synonyms
Origin	France

Calitor or Calitor noir is a red French wine grape variety. It was previously widely cultivated in southern France, in particular in Provence, but is now very rare, almost extinct. Historically used as mainly a blending variety, Calitor gives high yields and produces a light-bodied and lightly colored wine. When grown on hillside sites, it can give a wine of character.

Calitor is a very old variety that was first noted growing in southern France in 1600. The grape has produced two color mutations, Calitor blanc, which has been growing in the Costières de Nîmes region since at least 1782, and a pink-berried Calitor gris which are both not widely grown. Plantings of Calitor noir, itself, have been steadily declining since the early 20th century as French wine producers turned first to the more reliably productive Aramon noir and later to higher quality international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. In 1968, there were 319 hectares (790 acres) of Calitor noir in France but by 2008 that number had dropped to just 31 hectares (77 acres).

Ampelographers believe that the name Calitor is derived from the Provençal words Col (meaning "stalk") and tor (meaning "twisted") and was likely a reference to the near right angle bent of the peduncle stalk of Calitor bunches as they hang on the vine. The earliest synonyms of Calitor, Col Tor and Pécoui-Touar, mean literally "twisted stalks".

Under the synonym Colitor, the grape was mentioned along with Pinot, Ribier, Beaunois, Meslier, Bourboulenc and other varieties, in French soil scientist Olivier de Serres' work Théâtre d'Agriculture (1600) as one of the distinguished varieties that was commonly planted in several provinces. In 1656, the grape was mentioned again under the name Colitor growing around the commune of Lapalud in Vaucluse department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. The white-berried color mutation, Calitor blanc, was first mentioned in 1782 as being one the varieties behind the popular white wines of the Nîmes in the Gard department of the Languedoc-Roussillon region.