The wine grapes to watch in 2026

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One massive change in the range of wines available today is the proliferation of grape varieties, even when compared with 10 years ago. Indeed, nowadays I often attend professional tastings at which there isn’t a single Cabernet Sauvignon on the table, and only a handful of Chardonnays.

Among better-known alternative varieties, Malbec has had its years in the sun thanks to the skill of Argentina’s wine producers. Uruguay has done the same for Tannat. Grenache/Garnacha has become far more respected and popular than it used to be, as witnessed by the fine examples now being made all over Spain and in Australia where there is also considerable experimentation with the lauded grape of Barolo and Barbaresco, Nebbiolo.

All over Europe, local grapes are being substituted for the international darlings Cabernet and Chardonnay. Austrians, for instance, are now intensely proud of their Grüner Veltliner, Blaufränkisch and even Zweigelt. Throughout Italy the country’s myriad indigenous vines, notably but by no means exclusively Sangiovese, are being re-evaluated, and all those Supertuscans based on Bordeaux varieties now look rather old hat. French varieties such as Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc that might once have been regarded as “second tier” are getting the respect they deserve and can be found well outside their stronghold, the Loire Valley. Hotspots include the higher reaches of Mendoza in Argentina for Cabernet Franc and many a South African wine district for Chenin Blanc.

Sauvignon Blanc is now more popular in many quarters — including Napa Valley — than the world’s most-planted pale-skinned grape Chardonnay, and its relative Sauvignon Gris has become a regular blending partner with it in dry white bordeaux. Galicia’s Albariño and Godello have proved that Spain can produce top quality dry whites as well as reds, and their names are increasingly found on labels around the world — not just locally.

But how about more obscure grape varieties? Here are a few of my current favourites, more whites than reds.

Greece is an extraordinarily fertile hunting ground. Few wine drinkers who spend any time on the popular holiday island of Santorini fail to fall for its leading white wine grape Assyrtiko (sometimes blended with the equally local Aidini and Athiri). Peter Barry of Jim Barry Wines in South Australia’s Clare Valley was one of those tourists. After years of plant quarantine, he began producing creditable Australian Assyrtiko in 2017. The grape is brilliantly suited to warm or even hot climates as it retains its refreshing acidity, as well as a beguiling sort of lemony pungency. It is one of the most successful “Mediterranean” varieties imported into South Africa by leading Swartland producer Eben Sadie for his Sadie Family wines.

The island of Crete has its own special, acid-retaining grapes, of which Vidiano is probably the most promising but unlike Assyrtiko it doesn’t seem to have travelled very far — yet. Like so many of these lesser-known grapes, it almost became extinct when the world grew obsessed with a handful of “international” grapes. (Even a variety as popular today as Viognier was in danger of disappearing altogether from its home in the northern Rhône in the 1960s, as was my beloved Godello in its native Valdeorras in Galicia in the 1970s.) Vidiano is probably the most intensely fruity Cretan white wine grape but there is no shortage of them, including Dafni, named after the laurel that powerfully informs its aroma. Superior examples of the Xynisteri of Cyprus are also worth seeking out.

A range of red-wine grapes such as Kotsifali and Liatiko are also being rediscovered on Crete but the most obvious current choice for a Greek dark-skinned variety is the much more widely planted Xinomavro. It has recently come to the fore as a less expensive alternative to the Nebbiolo of Piemonte. Like Nebbiolo, it produces relatively pale reds that are high in both acidity and tannin. It’s the signature — indeed only — grape of Naoussa and Amyndeo in Greek Macedonia.

UK specialist importer Maltby & Greek has just launched the Three Bowls range of three Greek wines, which would serve as excellent introductions to Assyrtiko and Xinomavro, including a pale rosé that’s a blend of the two.

Like Greece, Portugal can boast a rich assortment of indigenous grape varieties and has largely escaped Cabernet- and Chardonnay-worship. The obvious candidates are dark-skinned port varieties such as the Touriga Nacional, which probably originated in the Dão region of central northern Portugal and has now been planted all over the warming world. But I have a very soft spot for Dão’s Encruzado grape which can produce white wines with the same sort of depth, structure and potential evolution as a serious, oak-matured white burgundy.

Another of my favourite Portuguese pale-skinned grapes is Arinto which is so widely planted (and often blended) that it is not necessarily much admired, but I love the steely elegance of the best varietal examples. However the name is applied to many other varieties (grape nomenclature is a minefield). In the resurgent vineyards of the Azores, the Madeira grape Sercial is called Arinto dos Açores. In mainland Portugal it is known as Esgana Cão (dog strangler) on account of its high acidity. All Arinto wines I have come across are remarkably pure and refreshing. Portugal’s most common white-wine grape is known as both Fernão Pires and Maria Gomes. (See what I mean?) It can also be found in South Africa, Portugal having once been a popular staging post for ships en route to the Cape.

Another Iberian favourite of mine is the dark-skinned Mencía grown in Bierzo and on the steep terraces of Ribeira Sacra in the far north-west of Spain. Its wines are so much juicier and more perfumed than those of Spain’s most-planted dark-skinned grape Tempranillo. When grown on schist, it can produce complex wines worth ageing.

But French grapes are by no means to be ignored. Burgundy’s supposedly “lesser” white wine grape Aligoté, once awfully tart, is now yielding some wonderful wines thanks to warmer summers. An outstanding example is David Moret’s Le Grand A, which comes from ancient vines and is treated in the cellar as though it were the finest Chardonnay.

I’ve long loved the richly floral Trousseau reds of the Jura. But although the variety’s home is this eastern subalpine region, it is not widely planted there. Instead it pops up all over the place: in northern Portugal and Madeira as Bastardo; in Galicia called variously Bastardo, Maria Ordoña and Merenzao; and as Trousseau in both California and Oregon. Truly a world traveller.

The pale-pink-skinned mutation of Grenache known as Grenache Gris, or Garnacha Roja or Garnatxa Gris in its Spanish homeland, is another favourite. Its wines seem to have much more nerve and character than most Grenache Blancs and it’s most commonly found in Roussillon, Languedoc and north-east Spain. It’s often blended but is well worth bottling on its own.

Other favourites include the Tintilla de Rota of Cadiz (the same at Rioja’s Graciano), Macabeo (the Viura of Rioja), Fronton’s Négrette, Italy’s Gaglioppo and Timorasso and the Savagnin of Jura. I could go on, but hope already to have sufficiently piqued your thirst for a change from well-trodden paths to familiar bottles.

Less familiar grapes

WHITES

Assyrtiko

Vidiano

Douloufakis, Dafnios Vidiano 2025 PGI Crete (13.5%)
£19.90 Maltby & Greek, also Vinagogo

Oenops Vidiano 2023 PGI Crete (13%)
£24.95 Vin Cognito and many other retailers

Xynisteri

Encruzado

Arinto (Sercial)

Aligoté

REDS

Xinomavro

Three Bowls Xinomavro 2024 Naoussa (13.5%)
£16 Maltby & Greek

Thymiopoulos, Earth and Sky 2023 Naoussa (13.5%)
£25 The Wine Society

Magoutes Vineyards Xinomavro, 2020 PGI Siatista (13%)
£29.50 Maltby & Greek

Melitzani Estate Xinomavro 2017 Naoussa (13.5%)
£30 Maltby & Greek

Mencía

Ponte da Boga, P Mencía 2023 Ribeira Sacra (12%)
£18.95 Thorne Wines

2014 Descendientes de J Palacios, Las Lamas 2014 Bierzo (13.5%)
£99.99 Morgan Edwards

Trousseau

Tasting notes, scores and suggested drinking dates on JancisRobinson.com. International stockists on Winesearcher.com.

How are grapes related?

Now that DNA profiling can be applied to vine varieties, we can trace all sorts of intriguing relationships between them. One of the most significant families has Pinot and an obscure grape called Gouais Blanc at the head with offspring including Chardonnay, Aligoté and the principal grapes of both Beaujolais and Muscadet. The extended family, in which Savagnin plays a significant role, encompasses more than 150 varieties, including all the well-known Bordeaux grapes, Viognier, Chenin Blanc, Grüner Veltliner, Trousseau and Syrah.

Savagnin is a parent of both Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc. Cabernet Sauvignon turns out to be the offspring of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc, which historical records suggest probably originated in Basque country in northern Spain and the Loire respectively. Cabernet Franc is also a parent of Merlot.

What the northern Rhône’s signature grapes Syrah and Viognier probably have in common is the Savoie grape Mondeuse Blanche as a parent but there are still mysteries to unravel, such as the likely identity of the other parent of Viognier. DNA analysis can reveal a parent-offspring relationship between varieties but not always which is the parent.

For detailed tasting notes, scores and suggested drinking dates see JancisRobinson.com. For international stockists see Wine-searcher.com.

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