Couderc noir

Couderc noir is a red wine hybrid grape that was formerly grown primarily in the South West France wine region and around the Gard département in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. The vine produces high yields and ripens late, creating a wine that is deeply colored with a distinct, earthy flavor. Couderc noir is normally used for mass commercial and table wines.

The grape was planted throughout France following the devastation of the phylloxera epidemic in the late 19th century and until the 1970s there were more plantings of Couderc noir in France than Cabernet Sauvignon.

Couderc noir is a natural inter-species crossing between an unknown Vitis vinifera variety and Munson (also known as Jaeger 70). The Munson grape itself is an inter-species hybrid created from two American grapevine species Vitis lincecumii and Vitis rupestris. Couderc noir was discovered in 1886 in the garden of a pastry chef named Contassot from Aubenas in the Ardèche department. Contassot had plantings of Munson and when he observed the characteristics of this new vine, he gave the seeds to grape breeders Georges Couderc and Albert Seibel who began working with the variety. Couderc's "series 71" cutting of the vine was the most commercially successful and the grape was formally named after him.

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