page_title: Folle blanche
section_title: Wine regions
hierarchical_section_title: Folle blanche / Wine regions
caption_attribution_description: Verre de gros-plant-du-pays-nantais
context_page_description: Folle blanche was the traditional grape variety of the Cognac and Armagnac regions of France. It is also known as Picpoule as well as Gros Plant and Enrageat blanc. Folle blanche is an offspring of Gouais blanc, with the other parent so far unidentified.
  It has been mostly replaced by its hybrid offspring Baco blanc due to phylloxera damage. Baco blanc is a cross of Folle blanche and the Vitis riparia × Vitis labrusca hybrid Noah. Folle blanche is also the parent of the very hardy and disease-resistant Baco 1, a cross of Folle blanche and a Vitis riparia variety. Baco noir and Baco 22 A, like Folle blanche and their other parents, produce a very acid wine. This makes them more suited to distillation than less acidic grapes.
  Folle blanche is used in the Loire Valley area and in Brittany around Nantes to produce Gros Plant du Pays Nantais, a very dry and often tartly acidic wine that pairs well with shellfish. There it is used both in the production of table wine as well as eau de vie.
context_section_description: In 2009, there was 1,770 hectares (4,400 acres) of Folle blanche growing in France, most of it in the Pay Nantais region (overlapping the Muscadet region) of the Loire Valley where it is used to make the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) wine Gros Plant du Pays Nantais. While the grape's use in Cognac and Armagnac has largely fallen out of favor in preference to Baco blanc, some producers in Armagnac make a varietal brandy out of the grape.
  Outside France Folle blanche is grown in the Basque Country where it is known as Mune Mahatsa and is sometimes blended with Hondarribi Zuri (Courbu blanc). In the Catalan wine region of Spain it is used by some brandy producers. In California there are a few limited plantings of the variety.
caption: A glass of Gros Plant du Pays Nantais made from Folle blanche (Gros Plant).
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