Welcome to the section on grape varieties. There is much more to grapes than just Chardonnay or Cabernet. Here you will find a brief but concise introduction to the most common red and white varieties from the different wine regions around the world.

Cabernet Franc
Cousin of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc is a lighter, fresher version best known in the red wines of the Loire (Bourgueil, Chinon and Saumur in particular) and Bordeaux. Examples from northern Italy and eastern Europe are also worth looking out for. The grape is low in tannin and brings notes of raspberry and herbs to a wine with an almost 'crunchy' freshness. A perfect summer drink.

Flavour Hints : raspberry, herbs

Cabernet Sauvignon
The better known Cabernet and undisputed heavyweight champion of the Médoc. Small and tough-skinned, its grapes produce deeply-coloured wine, rich in blackcurrant, mint and green pepper flavours and tannins that enable some to age for decades. Number One red grape variety of the world, it is best known in Bordeaux, but now has been transported to almost every wine-growing region in the world. It sometimes flies solo, but more often it partners Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot or, in Australia, Shiraz.

Flavour Hints : blackcurrant, mint, green pepper, pencil shavings

Grenache
The most widely planted grape in Spain (where it is known as Garnacha) and the second most planted variety in the world, Grenache produces soft, velvety, high alcohol wines with sweet, ripe blackberry flavour. This makes it good for blending, adding immediate charm and softness to Rioja and weight and fruit to Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It appears all over the southern Rhône and southern France where it also makes luscious, rich, fortified wines (in Roussillon, Maury and Banyuls) and oceans of fruity rosé.

Flavour Hints : blackberry, herbs

Merlot
A grape very much in vogue thanks to Bordeaux's Pomerol and Saint-Emilion. In California, where it makes concentrated Bordeaux-style wines, it has almost cult status. Supple, soft, rich and velvety even when young and, when used in a blend, smoothes the way for more tannic varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon.

Flavour Hints : plum, creamy toffee, rose petals, tea

Nebbiolo
The dark horse of Italy and rarely grown outside Piedmont, this is one of Italy's two great native red varieties - making its famous Barolo and Barbaresco. Its thick-skinned grapes need plenty of sunshine to ripen fully and, unless handled with care, make red wines that are inpenetrably tannic when young. The best are long-lived reds alive with scents of truffle, malt and violets and with flavours of rich, tarry, black cherry fruit.

Flavour Hints : black cherry, tar, truffles, violets

Pinot Noir
Capricious Pinot Noir can make some of the world's greatest wines, breathtaking in complexity. One of the trickiest and most unpredictable grape varieties to grow too, it performs best in the relatively cool climate of Burgundy. Producers all over the world have tried to emulate these superb examples, but few succeed. Some of the more successful attempts come from New Zealand, California, Tasmania, the Loire and north-east Italy.

Flavour Hints : raspberry, strawberry, game

Pinotage
Created in the 1920's, this South African grape variety is a cross between Cinsault and Pinot Noir. Initially slow to gain popularity, it is now the country's second most widely planted red variety with an incredible worldwide following. In much the same way that Zinfandel is unique to California, South Africa can offer the world its own grape in Pinotage. Varying from rich, full-bodied reds to light, juicy examples this variety is renowned for producing delicious ripe wines. The rich, heavy examples can age for years whilst the lighter wines provide some great summer drinking.

Flavour Hints : Cherry and plum with hints of herbs and even banana!

Sangiovese
Italy's other top red grape and its most widely planted, producing the famous Tuscan wines Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino. It is grown throughout the country, though mostly in its central regions, and very little elsewhere in the world. Its wines can range from mid-weight, easy, cherry-flavoured reds to full, long-lived, plummy wines that turn deliciously cedary and complex with age.

Flavour Hints : cherry, orange, almond, plum

Syrah/Shiraz
Until the 1970s, Syrah was little known outside the northern Rhône and Australia, where it was and still is that continent's most widely-planted red grape. Since then, thanks to a surge in popularity, it has been planted thoughout the southern Rhône and southern France and is viewed as an 'improver' among the oceans of lesser-thought-of varieties such as Cinsault and Carignan. It is certainly a noble variety producing dark, complex, long-lived wines with powerful, rich berry fruit, particularly in the northern Rhône's Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie.

Flavour Hints : blackberry, herbs, black pepper, leather, tar

Tempranillo
Meaning 'early ripener', Tempranillo is a master of disguises at home in Spain - known as Tempranillo in Rioja, Navarra and Aragón, Tinto Fino in Ribera del Duero, Cencibel in the centre and Ull de Llebre throughout Catalonia. It is Spain's most noble variety, making stylish wines with strawberry and sour cherry flavours that combine perfectly with the flavours of oak in the Reserva and Gran Reserva wines. A small amount is also grown in Portugal and Argentina.

Flavour Hints : strawberry, cherry

Zinfandel
California's very own grape variety, although it seems to be the same as southern Italy's Primitivo grape. It produces wines that range in style from pink, sweet and frothy (confusingly called 'white' Zinfandel) to serious, full-bodied, weighty reds stuffed with blackcurrant fruit. A little is also made into a fortified version.

Flavour Hints : blackberry, cherry, herbs