Marselan

Marselan was created in 1961 by Paul Truel at the French national research institute, near the town of Marseillan on the Languedoc coast, by crossing Cabernet Sauvignon with Grenache. The aim was a high yielding grape for the south, and Marselan disappointed on that count: the berries came out very small, so the crop was light, and it was set aside for years.

Small berries are a virtue if you want quality rather than volume, and attitudes changed. It was finally authorised in France in 1990. It gives a deeply coloured red with fine tannin and good acidity, tasting of blackcurrant and black cherry with a herbal note, and it resists powdery mildew and rot better than either parent.

Its unexpected success has been in China. Marselan ripens well in the continental climate of Ningxia and Hebei, survives the winter burial that Chinese growers practise, and makes a wine of international style without being a copy of Bordeaux. It is now widely described as China's signature red grape, which is a strange fate for a French crossing that nobody wanted.