Bouchalès

The Gironde knew this vine by district. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, gave its names in 1874: grapput around Bordeaux and Libourne, bouchalès or boucharès across much of the La Réole and Bazas districts. They called it “very productive and very common” («Cépage très-productif et très-commun.»). The same edition put grapput in a third of the red vines at Gabarnac and in the mix at Semens, both in the Entre-deux-Mers. By 1898 the guide added prolongeau in the Blayais, cujas, gros-marty, and gros-de-Judith in the palus of Montferrand and Bassens.

The wine was plentiful and plain. The 1898 guide described “a vine producing much wine, common, but fairly alcoholic” («Cépage produisant beaucoup de vin, commun, mais assez alcoolisé»), late and rarely well ripened, and resistant to mildew; Pierre Viala’s Les maladies de la vigne (1893) put the Grapput among the vines very little attacked by mildew. VIVC today lists Grapput, Prolongeau, Cujas, and Gros Marty under Bouchalès (1596), so the identity is likely. The names cross, though: in 1868 the guide gave “graput” to the verdot-colon of the palus, boucharès and prolongeau were also given for the Malbec, and Viala and Vermorel’s Ampélographie (1902) gave grappu as a Gironde name of the Jurançon noir.

Oldest record in my library: Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins, 3rd edition, 1874