Mauzac

Mauzac Blanc is a white grape of the southwest of France. In Pierre Viala and Victor Vermorel’s Ampélographie (1901 to 1910), the 1902 volume gives the old white vineyard of Gaillac as 60% Mauzac, with Lenc dé l’El and Ondenc. A. Bedel, in his 1890 Les nouvelles méthodes de culture de la vigne et de vinification, names it with the Clairette as the grape of Blanquette de Limoux. VIVC records no parents for it, and lists Blanquette and Clairac among its many synonyms.

Its Bordeaux story is a story about a name. In Gironde texts “mauzac” belongs to a red grape: Raimond Boireau, in his 1892 book on vine growing and wine, lists “Lestrangey ou mauzac” under the name the Médoc gives it, malbec, and writes elsewhere of “le malbec, appelé aussi mauzac, noir de Pressac.” VIVC confirms that MAUZAC is also a synonym of Cot, the Malbec. The Gironde books record no white Mauzac in a vineyard, so any old Gironde “mauzac” should be read as Malbec unless the text says the grape is white.

Oldest record in my library: No Gironde record of the white Mauzac in the books; Raimond Boireau, Culture de la vigne, 1892, uses “mauzac” for the Malbec