Colombard is a natural cross of chenin blanc × gouais blanc. This widely planted Charentais white grape variety was traditionally blended with Ugni Blanc (trebbiano) and folle blanche, but considered inferior to both, as an ingredient in cognac. As Colombard’s star waned in France, almost half of total plantings being pulled up in the 1970s, it waxed quite spectacularly in California, where, as french colombard, it became the state’s most planted variety of all, providing generous quantities of reasonably neutral but reliably crisp base wine for commercial, often quite sweet, white blends to service the prevailing fashion for white wine.
