There's much confusion as to the origins of some of the world's best loved grapes.  To make matters worse, plenty of stories get passed around, mutated, and mistaken for fact.  Case in point:  Syrah, a varietal whose legends would have us believe that it was brought by crusaders, monks, or even Phoenicians  from Persia to the Northern Rhone.  Some British voices went so far as suggesting in the 1830s that its name was a French corruption of the Persian city, Shiraz, and that the grape should be renamed.  Whew, good thing no one bought into that (we're looking at you, Australia)...
Studies of the grape's DNA have more recently taught us that Syrah was actually born along the banks of the Northern Rhone more than eight hundred years ago and that both its parents, too, were indigenous French varietals.  Well, now that we have Syrah's background check out of the way, we're ready to share with you four other grapes whose identities have proven similarly confounding.  Join us this Saturday to find out more and, as always, taste delicious wine!