Wine · Grape variety · Short entry
Négrette
A black grape from south-west France that survives mainly in the Fronton appellation. It gives fragrant, deeply coloured wines with soft tannins and low acidity, best drunk young, and balanced rosés.
Saved at Fronton
Négrette was once grown widely in the greater south-west, but its thin skins and compact bunches make it very prone to powdery mildew, grey rot and mites, and it was abandoned in most regions. Fronton wines must be made from Négrette alone or with Négrette as the majority grape. The appellation file says it was the base of the vineyard before phylloxera (which reached Fronton in 1878) and was replanted afterwards, although grafted vines suffered more coulure and rot.
Because the wine usually lacks acidity, growers often add later-ripening varieties. In France it covered 1,523 ha in 1958 and 1,096 ha in 2018.