White grape
Savagnin
How to read this
Capitals mark the stressed syllable. “an” is a nasal vowel: say it through the nose, with no n. “ny” is the ny in “canyon”. The recording is the reference.
Savagnin, or Traminer, is an old white of northeast France or southwest Germany; DNA markers show it is a parent of Sauvignon Blanc and so a grandparent of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Savagnin is one of the founder grapes of Europe. José Vouillamoz, co-author of Wine Grapes, gives its first mention as 1483, in Germany, places its origin in northeast France or southwest Germany, and reads the name as coming from sauvage, wild. The Traminers belong to it, and Gewürztraminer is a pink, aromatic mutation. In 2000 Bowers and colleagues counted it, with Chenin, among the “very old cultivars”. VIVC lists no parents for it. Regner and colleagues reported a parent-offspring link with Pinot in 2000, and the direction of that link is still open.
DNA markers show that Savagnin is a parent of Sauvignon Blanc (Lacombe and colleagues, 2013; D’Onofrio and colleagues, 2021), and so a grandparent of Cabernet Sauvignon. Markers also give it as a parent of Chenin Blanc, Béquignol Noir, Teinturier, and Pruéras; the other parent of each is unknown. The Bordeaux books met the name before the science. In 1868 Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, listed “Servonien or Savagnin (in old Burgundy)” among the names of Sauvignon, and Auguste Petit-Lafitte read such names as proof “that the sauvignon is indeed a Bordeaux vine and that it is we who supplied it to other regions.” DNA markers show two separate grapes, with Savagnin the parent.
Oldest record in my library: “Le savagnin”, 1828, in B. A. Lenoir, Traité de la culture de la vigne (Jura); “savagnin jaune”, 1833, in Cyrus Redding, A History and Description of Modern Wines (Jura); “le savagnin vert”, 1846, in M. Chevreul, report on Count Odart’s Ampélographie (Arbois); in the Gironde books only as an old Burgundy name for Sauvignon: Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins, 1868
The family
Parents unknown.
Savagnin
Sauvignon Blanc shown by DNA markers
Chenin Blanc shown by DNA markers
Béquignol Noir shown by DNA markers
Teinturier shown by DNA markers
Pruéras shown by DNA markers
- Lacombe et al. 2013; D'Onofrio et al. 2021; VIVC 10790
- Lacombe et al. 2013; VIVC 2527
- Lacombe et al. 2013; VIVC 1147
- Lacombe et al. 2013; VIVC 12304
- D'Onofrio et al. 2021; Laucou et al. 2018; VIVC 9785
The discovery: In 2013, Lacombe and colleagues (Theoretical and Applied Genetics 126) placed Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Béquignol Noir, and Teinturier among the offspring of Savagnin.
The names
Other names in VIVC: Auvernat Blanc, Formentin, Fromenteau, Fromentin, Gentil Blanc, Gringet, Malvoisie, Milleran, Nature, Naturel, Noble Vert, Paien, Plant Paien, Sauvagnin.
In today’s rules
Not named in the rules of any Bordeaux appellation today.
In the books
“First: Sauvignon (in the Gironde and the Charente) [...] Blanc-Fumé (in the Nièvre); Servonien or Savagnin (in old Burgundy)”
1º Sauvignon ( dans la Gironde et la Charente ) [...] Blanc - Fumé ( dans la Nièvre ) ; Servonien ou Savagnin ( dans l'ancienne Bourgogne )
“which further strengthens us in the idea that the sauvignon is indeed a Bordeaux vine and that it is we who supplied it to other regions”
ce qui est encore de nature à nous fortifier dans l'idée que le sauvignon est bien un cépage bordelais et que c'est nous qui l'avons fourni aux autres contrées
“SYNONYMS: Surin-Fié (along the Loire and the Vienne). Blanc-Fumé (in the Nièvre). Servonien or Savagnin (in Burgundy)”
SYNONYMES : Surin - Fié ( cours de la Loire et de la Vienne ) . Blanc - Fumé ( dans la Nièvre ) . - Servonien ou Savagnin ( en Bour- gogne )
Sources
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 17636 (Savagnin Blanc) and passport id 12609 (Gewürztraminer, pedigree 'SAVAGNIN ROSE MUTATION'), accessed October 2026
- José Vouillamoz, 'The Powerful Potentates of the Grape World: Noiriens and Carmenets', Wine Grapes lecture 2, Wine Scholar Guild, September 17, 2023
- Bowers, J. E., Siret, R., Meredith, C. P., This, P. & Boursiquot, J.-M. (2000), 'A single pair of parents proposed for a group of grapevine varieties in northeastern France', Acta Horticulturae 528:129-132
- Regner, F. et al. (2000), 'Genetic relationships among Pinots and related cultivars', American Journal of Enology and Viticulture 51 (1):7-14 (as cited in the Vouillamoz lecture)
- Lacombe, T. et al. (2013), 'Large-scale parentage analysis in an extended set of grapevine cultivars (Vitis vinifera L.)', Theoretical and Applied Genetics 126 (2):401-414
- D'Onofrio, C. et al. (2021), 'Parentage Atlas of Italian Grapevine Varieties as Inferred From SNP Genotyping', Frontiers in Plant Science 12:605934
- Bowers, J. E. & Meredith, C. P. (1997), 'The parentage of a classic wine grape, Cabernet Sauvignon', Nature Genetics 16:84-87
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 2nd ed., 1868, 'Cépages de vignes blanches', p. 24
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 9th ed., 1922
- Auguste Petit-Lafitte, La vigne dans le Bordelais, 1868; his title 'professeur d'agriculture du département de la Gironde' from Édouard Féret, Almanach du buveur, 1870
- B. A. Lenoir, Traité de la culture de la vigne et de la vinification, 1828
- Cyrus Redding, A History and Description of Modern Wines, 1833
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026
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