The ultimate A-Z of grapes. F is for...
Faber
Faber or Faberrebe is a grape variety used for white wine. It was created by crossing Pinot Blanc and Müller-Thurgau in 1929 by Georg Scheu at the Landesanstalt für Rebenzüchtung in Alzey and was released with varietal protection in 1967. Wines produced from Faberrebe are fruity and have rather “grapey” aromas and a fresh taste with rather good acidity, and are light to golden yellow in colour.
Falanghina
An ancient Italian white grape, native to Campania, and reportedly of Greek origin. Gorgeous whites does it produce.
Fetească albă
Fetească albă is a Moldovan white grape variety, mainly cultivated in Moldova and Romania. It is used a lot for sparkling wine production, and also for Fetească wine.
Fetească neagră
Fetească neagră is an old pre-phylloxeric variety of Moldovan grape, grown mainly in several areas in the Romanian regions of Moldavia and Muntenia and also in the Republic of Moldova.
These grapes produce dry, semi-dry or sweet wines with a deep red colour and a black currant flavour, which becomes richer and smoother with aging.
Fetească regală
Fetească regală is a variety of Moldovan white grape variety, used for sparkling wine production, and for blending with Fetească albă. This variety is cultivated also in Transylvania, Romania, and is grown in most vineyards. And, no, we don't stock it. Not unless you ask!
Fiano
The Fiano is a white grape with quite pronounced flavours. Native, mostly, to the south of Italy, particularly in around Avellino in the Campania region, where Fiano di Avellino is a DOCG.
Also grown in Sicily, and has been in cultivation for more than two thousand years.
Folle Blanche
Folle Blanche is used for table wine in the Loire Valley in the area around Nantes, where it produces a very dry and often tartly acidic wine that pairs well with shellfish. Folle Blanche was the traditional grape variety of the Cognac and Armagnac regions of France. It is also known as Picpoule (with various variations of spelling (Piquepoul, Picpoul), although it is in fact unrelated to the Picpoul of the Languedoc).
Freisa
Freisa is a red wine grape variety grown in the Piedmont region of north-west Italy, primarily in Monferrato and in the Langhe. Wines made from the Freisa grape are red and usually somewhat sweet and lightly sparkling, or foaming. Still and fully sparkling versions are also produced as are perfectly dry and more decidedly sweet styles.
Friulano
Home for Friulano is the Friuli-Venezia Giulia where it one of the regions most widely planted grape variety. In the Friuli it is the main white grape of the Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) zones of Colli Orientali del Friuli, Collio Goriziano, Friuli Grave and Friuli Isonzo. Also known as Sauvignon vert or Sauvignonasse is a white wine grape widely planted in Chile where it was historically mistaken for Sauvignon blanc. The grape is distinct from the California planting of Muscadelle which is also called Sauvignon Vert. 🤯
Fromenteau
Fromenteau (sometimes called Beurot) is the name for several grape varieties, most importantly the medieval name for a Burgundian variety which had pale red berries and white juice, and is probably the ancestor of Pinot Gris. It is also used as a synonym for Roussanne of the Rhône, the Tokay d’Alsace of Alsace, and the Savagnin of the Jura.
Furmint
Furmint is a white wine grape and is most widely grown in Hungary, particularly in the Tokaj-Hegyalja wine region where it is used to produce single-varietal dry white wines as well as being the principal grape in the better known Tokaji sweet dessert wines.
It is also grown in the tiny Hungarian wine region of Somló. Furmint plays a similar role in the Slovakian wine region of Toka