Red grape of interest for adaptation

Arinarnoa

ah-ree-nar-noh-AH
How to read this

Capitals mark the stressed syllable. The French r comes from the back of the throat. The recording is the reference.

Arinarnoa is a red grape bred at INRA’s Bordeaux station in 1956; its breeder recorded Merlot and Petit Verdot, DNA markers show Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon. Bordeaux admitted it in 2021.

Arinarnoa is a red grape crossed in 1956 by Pierre Marcel Durquety at the viticulture research station of INRA’s Bordeaux center, as VIVC records. Since the Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur rules of March 22, 2021, it is one of the varieties of interest for adaptation. Together these may take up to 5% of an estate’s vines for the color and up to 10% of each lot for sale; Bordeaux Supérieur keeps each lot below 10%. The Médoc rules homologated on October 21, 2022 list it too, as do the Haut-Médoc and Listrac-Médoc rules homologated on July 31, 2025. A 2023 survey by the Chambre d’agriculture de la Gironde counted about 20 ha in the department.

The breeder recorded it as a cross of Merlot and Petit Verdot. DNA markers later showed a different pair, Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon, as the 2007 ENTAV-ITV catalog of French varieties and Lacombe and colleagues (2013) report, and as VIVC now gives it. A grape bred in Bordeaux from 2 Bordeaux parents on paper turns out to have one Bordeaux parent, Cabernet Sauvignon, with Tannat in place of Merlot and Petit Verdot.

It traveled before Bordeaux took it into its rules. The Wine Scholar Guild’s Bordeaux Masters (2024) dates its approval for use in France to 1980, and Kym Anderson and Signe Nelgen’s survey of the world’s vineyards counted 486 ha worldwide in 2016. In Brazil, Alberto Miele, Luiz Antenor Rizzon, and Mauro Zanus included an Arinarnoa made from that grape alone among the red wines of the 2006 vintage they analyzed for their 2010 study.

Crossed in 1956: Pierre Marcel Durquety, INRA Bordeaux (VIVC)

The family

Tannat shown by DNA markers

Cabernet Sauvignon shown by DNA markers

Arinarnoa

Cross: Durquety, Pierre Marcel, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Centre de Recherches de Bordeaux, Station de Recherches de Viticulture, 1956.

  • ENTAV-ITV catalog 2007; Lacombe et al. 2013; VIVC 599

The discovery: In 2007, the ENTAV-ITV catalog of French varieties gave Arinarnoa as a cross of Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon, against the breeder’s recorded Merlot and Petit Verdot.

In today’s rules

Admitted for adaptation (red) in 5 of the appellations and designations on this site; admitted for adaptation (rosé) in 1.

Admitted for adaptation · red
Bordeaux (red and clairet; with the other adaptation varieties: up to 5% of the estate’s vines for that color and up to 10% of each lot for sale), Bordeaux Supérieur (with the other adaptation varieties: up to 5% of the estate’s red vines and below 10% of each lot for sale), Haut-Médoc (with the other adaptation varieties: up to 5% of the estate’s vines for that color and up to 10% of each lot for sale), Listrac-Médoc (with the other adaptation varieties: up to 5% of the estate’s vines for that color and up to 10% of each lot for sale), Médoc (with the other adaptation varieties: up to 5% of the estate’s vines for that color and up to 10% of each lot for sale)
Admitted for adaptation · rosé
Bordeaux (with the other adaptation varieties: up to 5% of the estate’s vines for that color and up to 10% of each lot for sale)

Area planted

  • 20 ha planted area, Gironde (department 33), data year not stated (2023 presentation)
    Chambre d'agriculture de la Gironde, PNDV Tour 2023, 'Évolution et pilotage de l'encépagement' (Charlier, Vecchiato), slide 28 'Variétés à l'étude (ODG Bordeaux, Bx Supérieur)', header 'Surfaces plantées (33)', https://gironde.chambre-agriculture.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/Nouvelle-Aquitaine/100_Inst-Gironde/Documents/pdf_home_page_actualites/2023/PNDV_TOUR_2023_Evolution_et_pilotage_de_l_encepagement_CHARLIER_VECCHIATO.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12

Timeline

  1. 1956Bred by INRA from Cabernet Sauvignon and Tannat.
    Wine Scholar Guild / M. Gorman-McAdams MW, Bordeaux Masters study manual, 5th edition (2024), Unit 2, pp. 41-47 (secondary textbook)
  2. 1980Officially approved for use in France, as the Wine Scholar Guild reports (2024).
    Wine Scholar Guild / M. Gorman-McAdams MW, Bordeaux Masters study manual, 5th edition (2024), Unit 2, pp. 41-47 (secondary textbook)
  3. 2019The INAO national committee approves the framework convention for varieties of interest for adaptation (June 18, 2019), the legal route for these grapes into Bordeaux.
    Cahier des charges AOC Bordeaux supérieur (opposition draft after CNAOV opinion of November 18, 2020), V.1: 'convention cadre approuvée par le comité national compétent le 18 juin 2019', https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/3-CDC-Bordeaux-Supérieur.pdf
  4. 2021Admitted as a variety of interest for adaptation in AOC Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur (red).
    Arrêtés of March 22, 2021 homologating the cahiers des charges of AOC Bordeaux (NOR AGRT2106893A) and AOC Bordeaux supérieur (NOR AGRT2106889A), Journal officiel, March 30, 2021. The grapes and their limits are in the cahiers published in the Bulletin officiel of the Ministry of Agriculture (links printed in each arrêté), as set out in INAO's drafts after the national committee's opinion of November 18, 2020: https://winewitandwisdomswe.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Cahier-des-Charges-AOC-Bordeaux-updated-November-2020.pdf and https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/3-CDC-Bordeaux-Supérieur.pdf
  5. 2023About 20 ha planted in the Gironde, as reported in November 2023.
    Chambre d'agriculture de la Gironde, PNDV Tour 2023, 'Évolution et pilotage de l'encépagement' (Charlier, Vecchiato), slide 28 'Variétés à l'étude (ODG Bordeaux, Bx Supérieur)', header 'Surfaces plantées (33)', https://gironde.chambre-agriculture.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/Nouvelle-Aquitaine/100_Inst-Gironde/Documents/pdf_home_page_actualites/2023/PNDV_TOUR_2023_Evolution_et_pilotage_de_l_encepagement_CHARLIER_VECCHIATO.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12

In the lab

More than 32 studies and theses in the Bordeaux Reviews library mention this grape.

Sources

  • Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 599, accessed October 2026
  • Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, 'Bibliography to pedigree confirmed by markers' for variety 599 (breeder's pedigree MERLOT ROUGE X PETIT VERDOT contradicted by markers), accessed October 2026
  • ENTAV-ITV, Catalogue des variétés et clones de vigne cultivés en France, 2nd ed., 2007 (as listed by VIVC)
  • Lacombe, T. et al., 'Large-scale parentage analysis in an extended set of grapevine cultivars (Vitis vinifera L.)', Theoretical and Applied Genetics 126 (2):401-414, 2013, doi:10.1007/s00122-012-1988-2
  • Arrêtés of March 22, 2021 homologating the cahiers des charges of AOC Bordeaux (NOR AGRT2106893A) and AOC Bordeaux supérieur (NOR AGRT2106889A), Journal officiel, March 30, 2021. The grapes and their limits are in the cahiers published in the Bulletin officiel of the Ministry of Agriculture (links printed in each arrêté), as set out in INAO's drafts after the national committee's opinion of November 18, 2020: https://winewitandwisdomswe.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Cahier-des-Charges-AOC-Bordeaux-updated-November-2020.pdf and https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/3-CDC-Bordeaux-Supérieur.pdf
  • INAO, cahier des charges AOC Bordeaux, modification adopted by the CNAOV on February 7, 2023 (national opposition procedure draft), V.1 and VI.2, https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/CDCBordeaux-PNO2023.pdf, accessed October 2026
  • Cahier des charges AOC Médoc, homologated by arrêté of October 21, 2022, JORF October 27, 2022, V.1, V.2, IX.1.a (BO-Agri), https://info.agriculture.gouv.fr/boagri/document_administratif-c44a6487-9266-41d7-a328-1602d767c741/telechargement, accessed October 2026
  • Cahier des charges AOC Haut-Médoc, homologated by arrêté of July 31, 2025, JORF August 5, 2025, V.1, V.2, IX.1.a (BO-Agri), https://info.agriculture.gouv.fr/boagri/document_administratif-f1b84e6a-7c8c-4bdb-916f-9cae0b31ba08/telechargement, accessed October 2026
  • Cahier des charges AOC Listrac-Médoc, homologated by arrêté of July 31, 2025, JORF August 7, 2025, V.1, V.2, IX.1.a (BO-Agri), https://info.agriculture.gouv.fr/boagri/document_administratif-f6d9d034-1fd3-40ff-a10b-fc965726676b/telechargement, accessed October 2026
  • Wine Scholar Guild / Mary Gorman-McAdams MW, Bordeaux Masters study manual, 5th edition (2024), Unit 5, Médoc section (states that the Médoc, Haut-Médoc and Listrac-Médoc cahiers changed in 2022)
  • winewitandwisdomswe.com, 'The Médoc Marches On', December 19, 2022, https://winewitandwisdomswe.com/?p=22193, accessed October 2026
  • Chambre d'agriculture de la Gironde, PNDV Tour 2023, 'Évolution et pilotage de l'encépagement' (Charlier, Vecchiato), slide 28 'Variétés à l'étude (ODG Bordeaux, Bx Supérieur)', https://gironde.chambre-agriculture.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/Nouvelle-Aquitaine/100_Inst-Gironde/Documents/pdf_home_page_actualites/2023/PNDV_TOUR_2023_Evolution_et_pilotage_de_l_encepagement_CHARLIER_VECCHIATO.pdf, accessed October 2026
  • Wine Scholar Guild / Mary Gorman-McAdams MW, Bordeaux Masters study manual, 5th edition (2024), Unit 2, pp. 41-47
  • Kym Anderson & Signe Nelgen, Which Winegrape Varieties Are Grown Where? A Global Empirical Picture, 2020, Table 13
  • Alberto Miele, Luiz Antenor Rizzon & Mauro Celso Zanus, 'Discrimination of Brazilian red wines according to the viticultural region, varietal, and winery origin', Ciência e Tecnologia de Alimentos 30 (1):268-275, 2010
  • C. C. Guerra & S. G. Arcari, 'Perfil físico-químico e sensorial de vinhos varietais tintos elaborados a partir de uvas de cultivares recentemente introduzidas no país', 2008 (the oldest text in my library that names Arinarnoa)
  • Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026

Every grape

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