🍷 Blanc de noirs
A white wine, most often sparkling, made from dark grapes whose juice was pressed off the skins.
Blanc de noirs is a white wine, often sparkling, made from dark grape varieties pressed without their skins. Blanc de noirs is French for “white from blacks”. It is a white wine, most often sparkling, made from dark-skinned grapes. Colour comes from pigments in the skins, while the juice of nearly all dark varieties is pale. If the grapes are pressed quickly and gently, the juice does not pick up colour.
The best-known example is blanc de noirs Champagne from Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Such wines are also made elsewhere in French wine and beyond, in Germany, England and California. Sometimes they show a light golden or faintly pink tint.
Blanc de noirs usually tastes fuller and rounder than blanc de blancs, which uses only white grapes. Red-berry and bready notes are common. It is still a white wine, not a rosé: rosé is deliberately left on the skins to take on colour.
Links
- Part of
- 🍷 White wine
- Where it is made
- 🗺️ French wine
- Related to
- 🍇 Pinot Noir, 🍇 Pinot Meunier
- Similar and different
- 🍷 White wine, 🍷 Blanc de blancs, 🍷 Champagne
Frequently asked questions
What does blanc de noirs mean?
It means “white from blacks”: a white wine made from dark grapes such as Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.
How can white wine be made from red grapes?
The juice of most dark grapes is colourless. The grapes are pressed fast with little skin contact, so the wine stays pale.
How is blanc de noirs different from blanc de blancs?
Blanc de blancs is made from white grapes, usually Chardonnay, while blanc de noirs uses dark grapes and is usually fuller.
Similar
🍷 Blanc de blancs · 🍷 Grower Champagne · 🍷 Prestige cuvée · 🍷 Rosé Champagne · 🍷 Ratafia de Champagne · 🍷 Kir royal
⚠️ Wine contains alcohol: adults only, drink in moderation. Wine usually contains sulphites; egg white or milk proteins are sometimes used for fining — important for allergies and for vegans.