White grape
Zähringer
How to read this
Capitals mark the stressed syllable. The French r comes from the back of the throat. The recording is the reference.
Zähringer is a Traminer × Riesling cross made at Freiburg in 1939; DNA markers show that with Seyval Blanc it is a parent of Souvignier Gris, a resistant white now planted in the Gironde.
Zähringer is a pink-skinned grape bred in 1939 by Johannes Zimmermann at the Staatliches Weinbauinstitut Freiburg, in Germany, and numbered Freiburg 3-39. The breeder recorded the cross as “R. Traminer × W. Riesling”, and DNA markers confirm Traminer × Riesling (VIVC). VIVC names the Traminer parent as Gewürztraminer, which it records as a mutation of Savagnin Rose. That brings the Savagnin family, already a parent of Sauvignon Blanc, into this branch of the Bordeaux tree as well.
Zähringer enters the Bordeaux family tree through Souvignier Gris, crossed by Norbert Becker at the same Freiburg institute in 1983. The breeder recorded Cabernet Sauvignon and Bronner as its parents; DNA markers from the Julius Kühn-Institut (Röckel, Maul, and Töpfer, cited by VIVC) later showed them to be Seyval Blanc and Zähringer. The arrêté of August 16, 2023 admitted Souvignier Gris among the white grapes of Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur, and the draft rules for AOC Bordeaux adopted on February 12, 2026 list it for whites with up to 4 grams of residual sugar per liter. No record places Zähringer itself in the Gironde.
The family
Cross: Zimmermann, Johannes, Staatliches Weinbauinstitut Freiburg, Abteilung Weinbau, 1939.
- Röckel, Maul & Töpfer, BÖLN project (in preparation), cited by VIVC 22629
The discovery: Between 2014 and 2016, markers from the Julius Kühn-Institut (Röckel, Maul, and Töpfer, cited by VIVC) gave Seyval Blanc and Zähringer as the parents of Souvignier Gris, not the recorded Cabernet Sauvignon and Bronner.
In today’s rules
Not named in the rules of any Bordeaux appellation today.
Sources
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 13367 (Zaehringer), passport id 12609 (Gewürztraminer, pedigree 'SAVAGNIN ROSE MUTATION') and passport id 22629 (Souvignier Gris), accessed October 2026
- Röckel, F., Maul, E. & Töpfer, R., BÖLN project (in preparation), as cited by VIVC passport 22629 (Souvignier Gris)
- INAO, 'Modification du cahier des charges de l'AOP Bordeaux supérieur adoptée par le Comité national en séance du 7 février 2023' (national opposition procedure draft), https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/CDCBordeauxSuperieur-PNO2023.pdf, accessed October 2026
- INAO, draft cahier des charges AOC Bordeaux adopted by the Comité national on February 12, 2026 (national opposition procedure, not yet homologated), ch. I, V.1 a, https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/2-CDC-Bordeaux2026.pdf, accessed October 2026
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026
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