Couderc Noir

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

Couderc Noir, a hybrid of a dark-berried rupestris-lincecumii and vinifera, is one of several productive but undistinguished hybrids that proliferated in the midi in the early 20th century (see also baco, chambourcin, plantet, seibel, seyve-villard, villard). Although not as popular as Villard once was, Couderc Noir was so widely planted that France’s total area of Cabernet Sauvignon did not overtake that of Couderc Noir until well into the 1970s. By 2011 total plantings were less than 200 ha. The wine produced can be aggressively non-V. vinifera in taste.