DNA tests reveal Australian wineries have been mislabeling an expensive type of grape for DECADES
- French agriculture authority tested Australian wines labeled as petit manseng
- Based on the grape’s DNA, they discovered the wines were made from gros manseng grapes, a different but related variety
- The Australian government believes the issue was caused by the grapes having been mislabeled by a French important company in the 1970s
New DNA testing has revealed that a prized variety of grapes used to make a number of popular Australian wines has been mislabeled for decades.
The testing was done by the French National Institute of for Agriculture Research, which discovered that Australian wine labeled as ‘petit manseng’ actually comes from a related grape variety called ‘gros manseng.’
According to Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CISRO), there are currently between 15 and 20 growers in the country that have been unintentionally mislabeling these grapes.
New DNA testing has reveled that the popular petit manseng variety of grape grown by Australian wine makers is actually another kind of grape and has been mislabeled since it was first imported from France in 1979
These growers will be allowed to continue using the petit manseng label for their current crop, but beginning with the next season, they’ll be required to change over to gros manseng.
According the CISRO, the issue stems from the grapes having originally been mislabeled by a French supplier in 1979, when the grapes were first imported to Australia.
‘Unbeknownst to us, we have distributed something we called petit manseng over a number of years,’ CISRO’s Dr Ian Dry told ABC News.
‘At the time there were no really objective measures which would allow us to identify them — you would need to be a real expert in the area of ampelography.’
Petit manseng grapes are frequently used in so-called ‘New World’ wines because they’re uniquely suited to sunny environments like Australia and also Georgia, Virginia and California.
They’ve been described by Wine Enthusiast as having a ‘rich floral, spicy and tropical aromas.’
Gros manseng grapes by comparison are larger and can have a crude and less concentrated flavor; and if prepared improperly will have unpleasantly excessive tannin levels.
The discovery has caught many of Australia’s wine growers off guard.
Wine makers will be allowed to use the inaccurate petit manseng label for the current crop, but for the next growing season they’ll have to relabel their products to gros manseng. The change will affect between 15 and 20 wineries in Australia
‘We didn’t realize there was any doubt or research going on in the background, so we were a little surprised,’ Lilian Carter of Symphonia Wines said.
‘It’s a little disappointing, but the wine we’ve been making is of a high quality and it ages fantastically in a bottle.’
Symphony Hill Wines’ Ewan McPherson is unsure of how marketable gros manseng grapes will be compared to petit manseng, just based on how the words sound.
‘I love the wine itself, the wine we make is gorgeous,” McPherson said. ‘But the name, I think, is more gorgeous when it’s called petit manseng compared to gros manseng.’
‘I’m actually looking at a great opportunity to make an interesting label out of it with the word “gros” being highlighted and celebrating how funny that is.’