What the *** is Charbono?

Loved tasting the Charbono grape this past weekend, both in Hohokus and at the Karen Ann Quinlan Foundation Tasting on Sunday. Consumers love the taste and kept returning for more!

The grape itself has very large berries, this leads to a real juiciness in the wines. The skins are very thick which give it it’s great dark purple, almost black coloring (you can not see through this wine! The tannins are very soft and fleshy. Big , fat, rich, ripe fruit with relatively high acid for a California wine. This is what makes the wine so drinkable and so easy to pair with food!

Here’s Jim Summer’s description of his Summers Charbono Napa 2007

“Allegedly, Italian immigrants brought Charbono vines here in the late 1800s thinking they were Barbera. It was bottled as Barbera by Inglenook Winery and even won several medals as Barbera. Eventually, DNA testing done by Professor Carole Meredith of UC Davis proved that Charbono is the French vareity Corbeau, aka Charbonneau. Charbono wine is only produced in California, adding to its exclusive appeal. Now there are only 80 acres of Charbono planted in California, half of which are in Calistoga. Calistoga is a sweet spot for Charbono, and most of the older vineyards are there. Today only 16 wineries produce Charbono; with Summers Estate Wines holding the title of Charbono King for producing the largest amount of this special wine annually – about 2000 cases”

Here are some online references:

http://www.cal-italia.org/varietals/charbono.html

from Wikipedia: Confusion with other varieties
After genetic testing conducted by Carole Meredith, it was determined to be the same grape as the grape known as Corbeau, Douce Noire, or Charbonneau in the Savoie region of France; but in spite of repeated references, it is probably not related to Dolcetto of the Piedmont. It is likely that this confusion arose because an Italian synonym for Dolcetto is “Dulce Nero” which translates to “sweet black,” as does the French name “Douce Noire” for Charbono..