This week’s indigenous varieties are all ones that I had never heard of and first met in a book I own on indigenous varieties in Italy. Goldtraminer as you might expect is a cross created in 1947 by Rebo Rigotti at San Michele all’Adige between Traminer and Garganega. The grape is aromatic and is especially useful in making late harvest wines.
Gosen Nero was also created by Rebo Rigotti at San Michele all’Adige but this one was done in 1950 and is a cross between Carmenere and Teroldego. It has a very thick skin and is well suited to Northern regions in Italy with wet autumns. It is a very vigorous grape variety and thus needs to be limited in order to produce quality fruit.
The third variety for today is Granoir Nero which grows in the Valle d’Aosta, a cross between Gamay and Reichsteiner, created by M. Andre Jaquinet.
None of these varieties are ones that you will likely find at your local liquor store but you may come across them in your travels within il Bel Paese.
avvinare.com 
Hi Susannah,
The grape garanoir (at one stage called granoir by its breeder before its current official name) is a recent Swiss cross obtained in 1970 by André Jaquinet in Pully. So I doubt you could call it an Italian indigenous variety! Or then we’ll have te redefine what indigenous means 😉 There are over 200 hectares plated in Switzerland. It has a brother from the same parents called gamaret. I know that the Insitut Agricole Régional in Valle d’Aosta produces a garanoir/gamaret blend but I’ve never come across another garanoir from Valle d’Aosta. Have you tasted one?
All the best and thanks for your blog!
Eric –
These are grapes that grow in Italy. Perhaps indigenous is the wrong title for this particular post but that is the name of the series. No as I said in the post, I have never tasted this variety. I have a book called the grapes of Italy and many others about clones that grow in Italy. They are all in Italian though, not sure where you are based. Thanks for stopping by at Avvinare.com.
I made a research on the internet about gosen nero. I found nothing at all. And it’s not mentioned in Wine Grapes (the book). What is the book on indigenous varieties that you own ?
The grape was first called Gastar. The Gamaret grape is made from the same two grapes.