White grape
Folle Blanche
How to read this
Capitals mark the stressed syllable. “ahn” is a nasal vowel: say it through the nose, with no n. The recording is the reference.
Folle Blanche, known in most of the 19th-century Gironde as “Enrageat”, is the old white grape of Cognac and Armagnac and, DNA markers show, a parent of Merlot Blanc and Jurançon Noir.
Folle Blanche is the white grape the Charentes called Folle Blanche, the Armagnac Piquepoul, and most of the Gironde Enrageat. Auguste Petit-Lafitte, the Bordeaux agronomist, set the 3 names side by side in La vigne dans le Bordelais (1868) and promised to show that they named one vine; VIVC lists Enrageat among its synonyms, so the identity is settled. VIVC gives it no parents, and the Wine Grapes pedigree diagram proposes it as an offspring of Gouais Blanc. Its children are firmer: DNA markers show that it is a parent of Merlot Blanc, with Merlot, and of Jurançon Noir, with Cot.
André Jullien, the Paris wine merchant whose Topographie de tous les vignobles connus first appeared in 1816, already wrote of “la folle blanche ou enrageât”, whose wines were green, hard, and fairly strong, “but quick to spoil.” William Franck explained the Gironde name in 1845: the Enrageat was so called because it produced so much. The books then find it across the white vineyards of the Gironde: three quarters of the whites at Teuillac in the Bourgeais in 1874, nine tenths at the domaine de Labeylie-Pellebouc in Édouard Féret’s Statistique of the same year, and 30 hectares of sémillon and folle-blanche at Château-Gachon in 1893.
Replanting after phylloxera changed its place. The 1922 edition of the guide of Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, says that the lesser white grapes of the Gironde “are little spread and have, for the most part, been left out of the reconstituted vineyard”, and names the Enrageat “the most important” of them. Some estates still recorded it that year: the clos Gassiot, replanted mainly with sauvignon, sémillon, and muscadelle, also listed folle blanche.
Oldest record in my library: André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus, 1816
The family
Gouais Blanc proposed
Folle Blanche
Merlot Blanc shown by DNA markers
Jurançon Noir shown by DNA markers
- Robinson, Harding & Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes (2012), pedigree diagram (gray 'Various' box); not on VIVC 4183
- Boursiquot et al. 2009; Lacombe et al. 2013; VIVC 7655
- ENTAV-ITV catalog 2007; Lacombe et al. 2013; VIVC 5862
The discovery: In 2009, Boursiquot and colleagues showed with DNA markers that Merlot Blanc is a cross of Merlot and Folle Blanche.
The names
As the Gironde books wrote it: Enrageat, Enrageât, Enrageade, Pique-poux, Piquepout, Picpout, Piquepouille, Fol, Fou, Enragé, Dupré-de-Saint-Maur, Sole, Grosse-Blanquette, Blanche.
Other names in VIVC: Bordelais, Burageat, Canut, Chalos, Chalosse Blanche, Dame Blanche, Engreat Blanc, Enrachat, Enrage, Enrageade, Enrageat, Enrageat Blanc, Folle, Folle De Bordeaux.
Old names: Chalosse blanche (open), Enrageat (settled)
In today’s rules
Not named in the rules of any Bordeaux appellation today.
In the books
“The folle blanche or enrageât gives green, hard, fairly strong wines, but quick to spoil”
La folle blanche ou enrageât donne des vins verts, durs, assez spiritueux, mais prompts à s’altérer
“White wines made from 3/4 enrageat (folle), 1/4 chalosse blanche”
Vins blancs produits par 3/4 enrageat (folle), 1/4 chalosse blanche
“There, 30 hectares are given to white vines: sémillon and folle-blanche.”
30 hectares y sont consacrés à la culture des vignes blanches : sémillon et folle - blanche .
“They are little spread and have, for the most part, been left out of the reconstituted vineyard. The most important is the Enrageat or Folle-Blanche.”
Ils sont peu répan- dus et ils ont été , la plupart , supprimés du vignoble reconstitué . Le plus important est l'Enrageat ou Folle - Blanche .
Sources
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 4183, accessed October 2026
- Robinson, Harding & Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes (2012), pedigree diagrams (Pinot gatefold: Gouais Blanc x 'Various' gray box, includes Folle Blanche)
- Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes Week 2 lecture (WSG, 2023), Gouais offspring slide
- Boursiquot et al. 2009; Lacombe et al. 2013; Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 7655, accessed October 2026 (Merlot Blanc = Merlot x Folle Blanche)
- ENTAV-ITV catalog 2007; Lacombe et al. 2013; Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 5862, accessed October 2026 (Jurançon Noir = Cot x Folle Blanche)
- André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus, 1st ed., 1816, Gironde
- Wilhelm (William) Franck, Traité sur les vins du Médoc, 2nd ed., 1845, ch. 3, vignes blanches
- Auguste Petit-Lafitte, La vigne dans le Bordelais, 1868, 'Établissement du vignoble'
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 2nd ed., 1868, 'Cépages de vignes blanches', p. 27
- Charles Cocks (rev. Édouard Féret), Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 3rd ed., 1874, Teuillac
- Édouard Féret, Statistique générale ... du département de la Gironde, 1874, domaine de Labeylie-Pellebouc
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 6th ed., 1893, Château-Gachon
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 9th ed., 1922, 'Ampélographie', p. 16; clos Gassiot
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026
Test yourself on Bordeaux · Found an error? Corrections