Alicante Bouschet, often known simply as Alicante and sometimes as Alicante Henri Bouschet is the most widely planted of France’s red-fleshed teinturier grape varieties. It was widely planted for much of the 20th century but total French plantings had declined to 3,699 ha/9,136 acres by 2011, mainly in the Languedoc-Roussillon.
It was bred between 1865 and 1885 by Henri bouschet from his father’s crossing of Petit Bouschet with the popular Grenache, then often known as Alicante, and was an immediate success. Thanks to its deep red flesh, the wine it produced was about 15 times as red as that of the productive and rapidly spreading aramon.
