Poulsard is a red French wine

French wine

French wine is produced in several regions throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France has the world's second-largest total vineyard area, behind Spain, and is in the position of being the world's largest wine producer...

 grape variety from the Jura wine

Jura wine

Jura wine, is French wine produced in the Jura département. Located between Burgundy and Switzerland, this cool climate wine region produces wines with some similarity to Burgundy and Swiss wine. Jura wines are distinctive and unusual wines, the most famous being vin jaune, which is made by a...

 region. The name Ploussard is used mainly around the town of Pupillin

Pupillin

Pupillin is a commune in the Jura department in Franche-Comté in eastern France.-Demographics:As of the census of 1999, the population was 218.The estimate for 2005 was 244.-References:*...

 but can appear on wine labels throughout Jura as an authorized synonyms. While technically a dark-skinned noir grape, the skins of Poulsard are very thin with low amounts of color -phenols and produces very pale colored red wines, even with extended maceration

Maceration (wine)

Maceration is the winemaking process where the phenolic materials of the grape— tannins, coloring agents and flavor compounds— are leached from the grape skins, seeds and stems into the must. Maceration is the process by which the red wine receives its red color, since 99% of all grape juice is...

 and can be used to produce white wines. Because of this, Poulsard is often blended with other red-skin varieties or used to produce lightly colored rosé

Rosé

A rosé is a type of wine that has some of the color typical of a red wine, but only enough to turn it pink. The pink color can range from a pale orange to a vivid near-purple, depending on the grapes and wine making techniques.- Production techniques :There are three major ways to produce rosé...

wines. Additionally the grape is used to make blanc de noir white wines and sparkling cremants.

Poulsard is an authorized grape variety in the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée

Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée

Appellation d’origine contrôlée , which translates as "controlled designation of origin", is the French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, all under the auspices of the government bureau Institut National...

(AOC) wines of Arbois AOC, Côtes du Jura AOC, Crémant du Jura AOC, L'Etoile AOC and Macvin du Jura AOC. Outside of Jura, Poulsard is also grown in Bugey AOC of the Ain

Ain

Ain is a department named after the Ain River on the eastern edge of France. Being part of the region Rhône-Alpes and bordered by the rivers Saône and Rhône, the department of Ain enjoys a privileged geographic situation...

 département in eastern France.

Wine regions

Poulsard is found almost exclusively in eastern France, particularly in the Jura between Burgundy and Switzerland where it has been grown since the 15th century. Because of its versatility and its distinctive floral aromas, the grape was once the most widely planted grape variety in Jura but because of various viticultural difficulties and changing trends in the wine market, its numbers have declined. However, it is still the second most widely planted in Jura.

It is a permitted grape in several Jura AOCs including the Arbois and Côtes du Jura AOC where it is blended with Trousseau noir and Pinot noir

Pinot Noir

Pinot noir is a black wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes...

 to produce red and rosé; the L'Etoile AOC where it is used to produce a blanc de noir white wine and the Crémant du Jura AOC where it is used to make white and sparkling rosé. Outside of Jura, it is grown in the Bugey wine region located near the Beaujolais wine region. There Poulsard is blended with Gamay

Gamay

Gamay is a purple-colored grape variety used to make red wines, most notably grown in Beaujolais and in the Loire Valley around Tours. Its full name is Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc. It is a very old cultivar, mentioned as long ago as the 15th century...

, Pinot noir and Mondeuse Noire

Mondeuse Noire

Mondeuse Noire is a red wine grape that is grown primarily in the Savoy region of France. The grape can also be found in Argentina, Australia, and California. The grape was hit hard during the phylloxera epidemic of the 19th century which nearly wiped out the vine from eastern France...

 to produce light reds.

Viticulture

While the grape can grow in many different vineyard soils, in Jura it is most often planted on shale

Shale

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...

 marl

Marl

Marl or marlstone is a calcium carbonate or lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and aragonite. Marl was originally an old term loosely applied to a variety of materials, most of which occur as loose, earthy deposits consisting chiefly of an intimate mixture of clay...

, limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 and clay

Clay

Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

 soils. The grape clusters produce tightly compacted bunches with thin-skinned oval berries that have a light violet to black color.

The Poulsard vine tends to buds early, which makes it prone to the viticultural hazard of early spring time frost

Frost

Frost is the solid deposition of water vapor from saturated air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air as well as below the freezing point of water. Frost crystals' size differ depending on time and water vapour available. Frost is also usually...

. In some vintage

Vintage

Vintage, in wine-making, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product . A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine, where Port houses make and...

s, coulure

Coulure

Coulure is a potential viticultural hazard that is the result of metabolic reactions to weather conditions that causes a failure of grapes to develop after flowering. In English the word shatter is sometimes used. Coulure is triggered by periods of cold, cloudy, rainy weather or very high...

can set in and affect yields (which are usually very low to begin with). Additionally the vine is very susceptible to various grape diseases including downey mildew, grey rot and oidium

Oidium

This article is about a type of fungal spore. For the ascomycete genus, see Oidium . For the fungus that causes powdery mildew on grapes, see Uncinula necator....

. These issues, coupled with its low phenolics and coloring pigments, have contributed to the grape's decline in overall plantings, though it still maintains its presence in Jura.

Historically, Poulsard has been used in eastern France as a table grape

Table grape

Table grapes are grapes intended for consumption while they are fresh, as opposed to grapes grown for wine production, juice production, or for drying into raisins....

 but its thin skin has made transport of the grape beyond local villages difficult.

Clones

Over the centuries the Poulsard grape has developed a number of mutations that have allowed clones of the variety to emerge. In addition to the light red-berried form that is most commonly found, there is a completely white-skin and separate pink-skinned variety of Poulsard as well as deeply aromatic, darker skin variety musqué clone.

Wine styles

Though technically a red-skinned noir grape, Poulsard often produces Vin gris

Vin gris

Vin gris is white wine made from red grapes, in particular pinot noir. Pinot noir is a black grape, but can also be used to make rosé, blush wine, or white wine. When the grapes are brought to the winery and crushed, the juice is run off and removed from contact with the skin, leaving the colour...

either due to low extraction of color compounds or from oxidation of the must

Must

Must is freshly pressed fruit juice that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit. The solid portion of the must is called pomace; it typically makes up 7%–23% of the total weight of the must. Making must is the first step in winemaking...

 that lightens the color even further. While most red skin grape contribute color over a matter of hours to a few days during the maceration process where the skin is kept in contact with the fermenting must

Must

Must is freshly pressed fruit juice that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit. The solid portion of the must is called pomace; it typically makes up 7%–23% of the total weight of the must. Making must is the first step in winemaking...

, the amount of pigment in Poulsard is so low that even after a week of extended maceration very little color has seeped into the must. It is for this reason that Poulsard is often used in the production of white and lightly colored rosé wines, though officially more than 80% of the harvest

Harvest (wine)

The harvesting of wine grapes is one of the most crucial steps in the process of winemaking. The time of harvest is determined primarily by the ripeness of the grape as measured by sugar, acid and tannin levels with winemakers basing their decision to pick based on the style of wine they wish to...

 in Jura is used for red wine production.

Though Poulsard can be used to produce a varietal

Varietal

"Varietal" describes wines made primarily from a single named grape variety, and which typically displays the name of that variety on the wine label. Examples of grape varieties commonly used in varietal wines are Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Merlot...

 wine, its often blended the grape with other varieties either for enhanced color or to allow the Poulsard to contributes to the aroma of the blend. Among the grapes that Poulsard are often blended with is Trousseau Noir, Trousseau Gris

Trousseau Gris

Trousseau Gris is a French variety of white wine grape. It is occasionally found in eastern France and was once widely grown in California under the name Gray Riesling. In cool climates it can produce fresh aromatic wines...

, and Pinot noir.

Synonyms

Poulsard and its wines have been known under a variety of synonyms including Belossard, Blussart, Blussard Blau, Blussard Frueh Blau, Blussard Modry, Cornelle, Drille-de-Coq, Kleinblaettrige Fingertraube, Malvasier Schwarz, Mècle, Mescle, Méthie, Miècle, Olivette, Pandouleau, Pelossard, Peloussard, Pendulot, Plant d'Arbois, Pleusard, Pleusart, Plousard, Ploussard, Plussart, Pulceau, Pulsar, Pulsard, Quille de coq, Raisin Perle and Yurskii Zhemchug.

The white clone version of Poulsard blanc shares many similar synonyms in addition to Blussard weiss, Pelossart, Pulsar Belyi and Quille de Coque.