Get to Know the Pinots -- And the Most Common Synonyms!

Last time, in an overview of wine’s called Pinot , it was noted that if you were to do a search on “Pinot” wine grapes you could come up with a list that includes at least 26 different ones. In fact, according to the New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia, there are 258 official synonyms!

But, for brevity, here’s the list of the 26 Pinots that you might have actually heard of:

  • Pinot Aigret (Synonym for Rufete)

  • Pinot d’Anjou or Pinot d’Aunis (Synonym for Pineau d’Aunis)

  • Pinot Beurot or Pinot Burot (Synonym for Pinot Gris)

  • Pinot Bianco (Synonym for Pinot Blanc)

  • Pinot Blanc

  • Pinot Blanc Cramant or Pinot Blanc Chardonnay (Synonym for Chardonnay)

  • Pinot Blanco (Synonym for Chenin Blanc)

  • Pinot Blanc Vrai (Synonym for Pinot Blanc)

  • Pinot Branco (Synonym for Pinot Blanc)

  • Pinot Chardonnay (Synonym for Chardonnay)

  • Pinot Droit or Pinot Fin (Synonym for Pinot Noir)

  • Pinot d’Evora (Synonym for Carignan)

  • Pinot Fin Teinturier or Pinot Teinturier (A parent of the Chardonnay grape)

  • Pinot Fleri (Synonym for Mourvédre)

  • Pinot Giallo (Synonym for Chardonnay)

  • Pinot Grigio (Synonym for Pinot Gris)

  • Pinot Gris (Also known as Pinot Grigio)

  • Pinot Liébault (A clone of Pinot Noir)

  • Pinot de la Loire (Synonym for Chenin Blanc)

  • Pinot Meunier (One of three primary grapes used to produce Champagne)

  • Pinot Nero (Synonym for Pinot Noir)

  • Pinot Noir (The star of the show!)

  • Pinot Noir Précoce (Synonym for Frûhburgunder)

  • Pinot St George (Synonym for Négrette)

  • Pinot Vache (Synonym for Mondeuse)

  • Pinot Verdet (Synonym for Arbois)

Next time, we’ll start looking into the most widely known Pinots - Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Meunier.

Get to Know the Pinots

Grapes are grown worldwide typically for eating or for winemaking.

There are 17 genera (the plural of genus) that belong to the Vitaceae family of flowering plants. But just the one genus, Vitis, is important in the world of winemaking. And, of the nearly 80 species in this genus, just one, Vitis vinifera is generally grown for wine.

It is estimated that there are more than 10,000 grape varieties in cultivation. But, with today’s ability to do DNA analysis, it is thought that this number is actually around 5,000.

Now, if you were to do a search on “Pinot” wine grapes you could come up with a list that includes at least 26 different ones. But, many of these are simply synonyms for other grapes.

So, when it comes to the “Pinot” grapes, there are six primary clonal variations:

  • Pinot Noir/Pinot Nero

  • Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio

  • Pinot Blanc/Pinot Bianco

  • Pinot Meunier

  • Pinot Teinturier

  • Pinot Noir Précoce

In future blogs we’ll take a further look at these 6 as well as provide a full listing of the 26 “Pinot” grapes. Until then, cheers!