Principal white grape
Sauvignon Gris
How to read this
Capitals mark the stressed syllable. “ohn” is a nasal vowel: say it through the nose, with no n. “ny” is the ny in “canyon”. The French r comes from the back of the throat. The recording is the reference.
Sauvignon Gris is a pink-berried color mutation of Sauvignon Blanc, now a principal white grape of the Bordeaux AOC rules, grown on a few hundred hectares.
Sauvignon Gris is a color mutation of Sauvignon Blanc, confirmed by DNA markers, VIVC records. VIVC, the variety catalog of the Julius Kühn-Institut, gives its berry color as rose, and lists “Fiers” and “Sauvignon Rose” among its synonyms in France. As a mutation, it has no parentage of its own, and the family tree links it to Sauvignon Blanc, the vine it came from.
The earliest record in my library is from 1868. Auguste Petit-Lafitte, professor of agriculture of the Gironde, wrote in La vigne dans le Bordelais that the Sauvignon could show variations “such as the Sauvignon gris, the Sauvignon blanc” (“comme le Sauvignon gris, le Sauvignon blanc”), while the Gironde knew no well-defined varieties of it. Long after, in 1997, John Bowers and Carole Meredith of the University of California, Davis, wrote that colored forms of Sauvignon “are either rare or no longer exist”. Figures from Galet, as presented by Julia Riffault in 2017, give Bordeaux 14 hectares in 1958, 17 in 1988, and 10 in 1999; for 1958 the sources differ, since Plantgrape, the French national catalog, gives only 10 hectares for all of France.
Then came the turn. The Bordeaux AOC rules now list “sauvignon gris G” among the principal grapes of the white wines, beside Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Muscadelle. The same Galet and FranceAgriMer series counts 392 hectares of Sauvignon Gris in Bordeaux in 2015. A 2024 Wine Scholar Guild textbook gives 300 hectares in 2010 and 495 in 2022.
Oldest record in my library: Auguste Petit-Lafitte, La vigne dans le Bordelais, 1868
The family
A color mutation of Sauvignon Blanc
Sauvignon Gris
- VIVC, Sauvignon Gris passport: a color mutation of Sauvignon Blanc
The names
Other names in VIVC: Fiers, Sauvignon Rose, Sovignion Gris.
Old names: Sauvignon rose (likely)
In today’s rules
Principal (white) in 22 of the appellations and designations on this site; principal (sparkling) in 1; accessory (rosé) in 1.
- Principal · white
- Barsac, Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieur, Cadillac, Cérons, Côtes de Bordeaux, Côtes de Bordeaux-Saint-Macaire, Côtes de Bourg, Entre-deux-Mers, Francs Côtes de Bordeaux, Graves, Graves Supérieures, Graves de Vayres, Haut-Benauge, Loupiac, Médoc, Pessac-Léognan, Premières Côtes de Bordeaux, Sainte-Croix-du-Mont, Sainte-Foy Côtes de Bordeaux, Sauternes
- Principal · sparkling
- Crémant de Bordeaux
- Accessory · rosé
- Bordeaux (Sémillon and the 2 Sauvignons together: up to 20% of the estate’s vines for rosé and of each lot for sale; the 2 Sauvignons together: up to 10%)
Area planted
- 14 ha planted area, Bordeaux/Gironde, 1958
Julia Riffault, 'Recensement, préservation et valorisation des cépages modestes du Bordelais', Rencontres des cépages modestes, November 11, 2017, slides 'Évolution à Bordeaux de 1958 à 2015'; source printed on slides: 'Cépages et vignobles de France, Tome III, Galet 2006 + données France AgriMer 2017', https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12 - 10 ha planted area, France, 1958
Pl@ntGrape, le catalogue des vignes cultivées en France (INRAE, IFV, Institut Agro), Sauvignon gris, 'Evolution des surfaces cultivées en France' (1958: 10 ha), https://plantgrape.plantnet-project.org, accessed October 2026 - 15 ha planted area, Bordeaux/Gironde, 1968
Julia Riffault, 'Recensement, préservation et valorisation des cépages modestes du Bordelais', Rencontres des cépages modestes, November 11, 2017, slides 'Évolution à Bordeaux de 1958 à 2015'; source printed on slides: 'Cépages et vignobles de France, Tome III, Galet 2006 + données France AgriMer 2017', https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12 - 17 ha planted area, Bordeaux/Gironde, 1988
Julia Riffault, 'Recensement, préservation et valorisation des cépages modestes du Bordelais', Rencontres des cépages modestes, November 11, 2017, slides 'Évolution à Bordeaux de 1958 à 2015'; source printed on slides: 'Cépages et vignobles de France, Tome III, Galet 2006 + données France AgriMer 2017', https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12 - 10 ha planted area, Bordeaux/Gironde, 1999
Julia Riffault, 'Recensement, préservation et valorisation des cépages modestes du Bordelais', Rencontres des cépages modestes, November 11, 2017, slides 'Évolution à Bordeaux de 1958 à 2015'; source printed on slides: 'Cépages et vignobles de France, Tome III, Galet 2006 + données France AgriMer 2017', https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12 - 392 ha planted area, Bordeaux/Gironde, 2015
Julia Riffault, 'Recensement, préservation et valorisation des cépages modestes du Bordelais', Rencontres des cépages modestes, November 11, 2017, slides 'Évolution à Bordeaux de 1958 à 2015'; source printed on slides: 'Cépages et vignobles de France, Tome III, Galet 2006 + données France AgriMer 2017', https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12
Stands out at
Château de La Rivière
Sauvignon Gris 34% of its white wine
Château Thieuley
Sauvignon Gris 15% of the white Château Thieuley
Château de Cérons
Sauvignon Gris 10% of its white Graves
Château Lamothe-Vincent
Sauvignon Gris 7% of its white wine
Château Doisy-Védrines
Some old Sauvignon Gris beside Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Muscadelle
In the books
“variations more or less deep, such as the Sauvignon gris, the Sauvignon blanc, but strictly speaking no well-defined varieties of it are known in the Gironde”
des variations plus ou moins profondes , comme le Sauvignon gris , le Sauvignon blanc , mais à proprement parler on ne lui connaît pas , dans la Gironde , des variétés bien caractérisées
Timeline
- 1868Petit-Lafitte names 'Sauvignon gris' as a possible variation of Sauvignon, while saying no well-defined varieties of Sauvignon are known in the Gironde.
Auguste Petit-Lafitte, La vigne dans le Bordelais, 1868, p. 167 - 1958Sources differ: Riffault (2017, from Galet) charts about 14 ha in Bordeaux, while Plantgrape gives 10 ha for all of France. Bordeaux still had 10 ha in 1999, then 392 ha by 2015.
J. Riffault 2017 (Rencontres des cépages modestes), citing Galet 2006 and FranceAgriMer 2017, https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf; Pl@ntGrape, le catalogue des vignes cultivées en France (INRAE, IFV, Institut Agro), Sauvignon gris, 'Evolution des surfaces cultivées en France' (1958: 10 ha), https://plantgrape.plantnet-project.org, accessed October 2026 - 2021Sauvignon Gris is a principal white variety in the AOC Bordeaux rules, as it already was in the 2018 draft.
Arrêté of March 22, 2021 homologating the cahier des charges of AOC Bordeaux (NOR AGRT2106893A), Journal officiel, March 30, 2021, with INAO's draft after the national committee's opinion of November 18, 2020, V.1 a), https://winewitandwisdomswe.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Cahier-des-Charges-AOC-Bordeaux-updated-November-2020.pdf; INAO, cahier des charges AOC Bordeaux, opposition draft after the committee's opinion of November 15, 2018, https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/CDC-Bordeaux.pdf
In the lab
More than 38 studies and theses in the Bordeaux Reviews library mention this grape.
- L'exploration de la diversité variétale en production viticole à fin d'adaptation au changement climatique à travers des approches écophysiologiques, chimiques et sensorielles. Application au vignoble bordelais
Marc Plantevin, 2025 - Production de vin de Bordeaux blanc et de vin de Sauternes au Château Guiraud, 1er grand cru classé de Sauternes
Benoît Robert, 2023
Sources
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026 (passport 10792, Sauvignon Gris; prime-name search 'SAUVIGN')
- INAO, cahier des charges AOC Bordeaux, section V.1 'Encépagement', https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/CDC-Bordeaux.pdf, accessed October 2026
- Auguste Petit-Lafitte, La vigne dans le Bordelais, 1868, pp. 166-167
- Almanach du buveur, 1870, and Cocks, Bordeaux et ses vins, 1874, publisher's lists: 'Auguste Petit-Lafitte, professeur d'agriculture du département de la Gironde'
- John E. Bowers & Carole P. Meredith, 'The parentage of a classic wine grape, Cabernet Sauvignon', Nature Genetics 16:84-87, 1997 (pp. 84 and 85); quotation from p. 85
- Julia Riffault, 'Recensement, préservation et valorisation des cépages modestes du Bordelais', Rencontres des cépages modestes, November 11, 2017, slides citing Galet, Cépages et vignobles de France, t. III (2006) and FranceAgriMer 2017, https://rencontres-des-cepages-modestes.com/rencontres/2017/2017_documents/cepagemodestes_bordelais.pdf, accessed October 2026
- Wine Scholar Guild / Mary Gorman-McAdams MW, Bordeaux Masters study manual, 5th edition, 2024, Unit 2, pp. 36-47 (secondary textbook), p. 37
- Pl@ntGrape, le catalogue des vignes cultivées en France (INRAE, IFV, Institut Agro), Sauvignon gris, 'Evolution des surfaces cultivées en France', https://plantgrape.plantnet-project.org, accessed October 2026
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026
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