Red grape
Aramon
How to read this
Capitals mark the stressed syllable. “ohn” is a nasal vowel: say it through the nose, with no n. The French r comes from the back of the throat. The recording is the reference.
Aramon is a black grape of the French south, a cross of Ouliven and Gouais Blanc and a parent of Petit Bouschet; Bordeaux books place it only in the Bassin d’Arcachon vineyards, 1893 to 1922.
Aramon is a black grape of the south of France. DNA markers show that it is a cross of Ouliven and Gouais Blanc (VIVC), and it is one of the 2 parents of Petit Bouschet, the red-juiced grape Louis Bouschet crossed in 1829. In the Gironde its record is small and coastal. From 1893 to 1922 the guide of Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, lists “l'aramon” among the vines of the Bassin d’Arcachon, after the folle rouge, the pignon, and the cahors, and before the fer and the chasselas. The books give no description, so the identity rests on the name and is likely.
Its name served Bordeaux once more, underground. The 1922 edition of the guide has a chapter on the rootstocks used to replant the Gironde after phylloxera. For clay and silica soils that pack down under rain, it lists “Aramon X Riparia 143 B”, and for clay soils that crack, “Aramon × Rupestris Ganzin n° 1”, both hybrids with Aramon as one parent.
Oldest record in my library: “Aramon”, 1838, in James Busby, Journal of a recent visit to the principal vineyards of Spain and France (Provence); “l’Aramon”, 1854, in Alexandre-Pierre Odart, Ampélographie universelle; in the Gironde, Cocks and Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins, 6th edition, 1893 (Bassin d’Arcachon)
The family
- VIVC 544 marker pedigree
- VIVC 1619 marker pedigree (breeder record agrees)
In today’s rules
Not named in the rules of any Bordeaux appellation today.
In the books
“the folle rouge, the pignou, the cahors, the aramon, the fer, the chasselas.”
la folle rouge , le pignou , le cahors , l'aramon , le fer , le chasselas .
“the Folle Blanche, Cabernet Sauvignon (especially successful in the alluvial soil of the Basin of Arcachon), Folle Rouge, Pignon, Cahors, Aramon, Fer, and Chasselas.”
the Folle Blanche, Cabernet Sauvignon (especially successful in the alluvial soil of the Basin of Arcachon), Folle Rouge, Pignon, Cahors, Aramon, Fer and Chasselas.
“Clay and silica soils that pack down under rain: Aramon × Riparia 143 B”
Terres argilo - siliceuses qui se tassent sous la pluie . Aramon X Riparia 143 B
Sources
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 544, accessed October 2026
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 1619, accessed October 2026 (Petit Bouschet)
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 6th ed., 1893, Bassin d'Arcachon
- Charles Cocks, Bordeaux and its wines classed by order of merit, 3rd English ed. improved by Édouard Féret, 1899, Basin of Arcachon
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 9th ed., 1922, Bassin d'Arcachon; 'Cépages porte-greffes', pp. 17-18
- James Busby, Journal of a recent visit to the principal vineyards of Spain and France, 1838
- Alexandre-Pierre Odart, Ampélographie universelle, ou Traité des cépages les plus estimés, 3rd ed., Paris, 1854
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026
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