Accessory white grape

Colombard

koh-lohn-BAR
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.

Colombard is a white grape that DNA markers trace to Gouais Blanc and Chenin Blanc; in Bordeaux it is an accessory white, and in white Côtes de Blaye a principal grape.

Colombard is a white grape whose parentage DNA markers trace to Gouais Blanc and Chenin Blanc (Bowers and colleagues, 2000; Lacombe and colleagues, 2013), although VIVC notes that several hypotheses exist. In the Bordeaux rules it is an accessory white with Merlot Blanc and Ugni Blanc, the 3 together held to 30% of a farm’s vines. White Côtes de Blaye turns the order around: its 2017 rules make Colombard and Ugni Blanc the principal grapes, at 60% to 90% of the vineyard.

The earliest record in my library in the Gironde is the 1922 edition of Bordeaux et ses vins, the reference book of the Bordeaux trade by Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret. At Saint-André-de-Cubzac it reports that the white wines, once made from the enrageat, now came largely from Sémillon, Sauvignon, Colombard, Merlot Blanc, and Muscadelle. VIVC lists Cubzadais, the name of that district, among Colombard’s synonyms. The Wine Scholar Guild ties the grape’s weight in Blaye to the old trade in wine for distilling in the Charentes, which ran until the Cognac region was delimited in 1909.

The name needs care. In 1868 Cocks and Féret gave “Semillon ou Colombar (dans la Gironde)”, and Auguste Petit-Lafitte, the Gironde’s professor of agriculture, wrote the same year in La vigne dans le Bordelais that in some Gironde places the Sémillon was called Colombar. So the “colombar” the 1922 guide lists beside merlot blanc and sauvignon at château Meneau, in the Blayais, remains an open identity, while the Cubzadais “colombard”, printed next to “sémillon”, is a separate vine. Agreste, the farm ministry’s statistics service, counts 1,436 ha of Colombard lost in the Gironde between 1988 and 2018.

Oldest record in my library: “le colombar”, 1832, in André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus, 3rd edition (Charente); “Colombar”, 1854, in Alexandre-Pierre Odart, Ampélographie universelle, 3rd edition (Charente); in the Gironde, “le colombard”, 1922, in Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins, 9th edition (Saint-André-de-Cubzac)

The family

Gouais Blanc shown by DNA markers

Chenin Blanc shown by DNA markers

Colombard

  • Boursiquot et al. 2004, Bull. OIV 77:5-19; Lacombe et al. 2013; VIVC 2771
  • Bowers et al. 2000, Acta Hort. 528:129-132; Lacombe et al. 2013; VIVC 2771 (VIVC notes several hypotheses)

The discovery: In 2000, Bowers and colleagues, in Acta Horticulturae, are the earliest source VIVC cites for Colombard as a cross of Gouais Blanc and Chenin Blanc.

The names

As the Gironde books wrote it: colombar.

Other names in VIVC: Blanc Emery, Blanquette, Bon Blanc, Chabrier Vert, Colombar, Colombeau, Colombie, Colombier, Coulombier, Cubzadais, Donne Rousse, Donne Verte, Goulu Blanc, Gros Blanc Doux.

Old names: Blanquette (open)

In today’s rules

Principal (white) in 1 of the appellations and designations on this site; accessory (white) in 6; accessory (sparkling) in 1.

Principal · white
Côtes de Bourg
Accessory · white
Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux (to 15%), Bordeaux (to 30%), Bordeaux Supérieur (to 30%), Côtes de Bordeaux (to 15%), Entre-deux-Mers, Haut-Benauge
Accessory · sparkling
Crémant de Bordeaux

Stands out at

In the books

“White wines, once produced by the enrageat and sought after for the operations, are today produced largely by Sémillon, Sauvignon, Colombard, Merlot Blanc, and Muscadelle.”

Vins blancs , autrefois produits par l'enrageat , recherchés pour les opérations , sont aujourd'hui produits en grande partie par le sémillon , [...] le sauvignon , le colombard , le merlot blanc et la muscadelle .

Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite (9e éd.), 1922, p. 728

Timeline

  1. 1868In the Gironde the name 'Colombar' is recorded as a local name for Sémillon, so early Gironde mentions of 'Colombar' cannot be read as Colombard.
    Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 2nd ed., 1868, 'Cépages de vignes blanches', p. 25
  2. 1922Colombard is named among the white varieties of the Cubzadais (Saint-André-de-Cubzac).
    Cocks & Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins, 9th ed., 1922, p. 728
  3. 2012Pedigree shown as Chenin Blanc × Gouais Blanc.
    Pedigree diagram as printed in Robinson, Harding & Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes (2012)
  4. 2018Colombard loses 1,436 ha in the Gironde between 1988 and 2018.
    Agreste Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Études n°7 (June 2020, rectificatif), '1. Le foncier viticole: la Gironde', C. Lavaud and J. Bonotaux, p. 73, Figure 2 'Évolution des surfaces par encépagement entre 1988 et 2018, en hectare' (sources printed: RGA 1988, CVI 2018), https://draaf.nouvelle-aquitaine.agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/AgresteNAEtudes_7juin2020_FFvitiGironde_RECTIFICATIF_cle0edc51.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12

In the lab

More than 244 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 2771, accessed October 2026
  • Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, 'Bibliography to pedigree confirmed by markers' for variety 2771 (remark: 'Several parentage hypotheses exist'), accessed October 2026
  • Bowers, J.E.; Siret, R.; Meredith, C.P.; This, P.; Boursiquot, J.-M., 'A single pair of parents proposed for a group of grapevine varieties in northeastern France', Acta Horticulturae 528:129-132, 2000 (as listed by VIVC; not read)
  • 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
  • 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 Côtes de Blaye, arrêté of November 21, 2017, JORF December 1, 2017, BO-Agri December 7, 2017, V.1 and V.2, https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/CDC-Cotes-de-Blaye-BO-2017-12-07.pdf, accessed October 2026
  • Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 9th ed., 1922, Saint-André-de-Cubzac, p. 728 and Blayais, château Meneau
  • Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 2nd ed., 1868, 'Cépages de vignes blanches', p. 25
  • Auguste Petit-Lafitte, La vigne dans le Bordelais, 1868, Sémillion, synonymy
  • Wine Scholar Guild / Mary Gorman-McAdams MW, Bordeaux Masters study manual, 5th edition (2024), Unit 5, Blaye section, p. 154
  • Agreste Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Études n°7 (June 2020, rectificatif), C. Lavaud and J. Bonotaux, '1. Le foncier viticole: la Gironde', p. 73, Figure 2 (RGA 1988, CVI 2018), https://draaf.nouvelle-aquitaine.agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/AgresteNAEtudes_7juin2020_FFvitiGironde_RECTIFICATIF_cle0edc51.pdf, accessed October 2026
  • André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus, 3rd ed., 1832, Charente
  • 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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