Albarino grapes not what they seem

The Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation has confirmed that what was thought to be the albarino wine grape variety is in fact a different kind of grape.

Concerns had been raised over whether the variety was actually what it was mean to be last year, but the CSIRO has just confirmed that the grapes thought to be albarino are in fact savagnin blanc, a similar varietal from France.

Steve Guy from the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation says they're still trying to work out how the mistake occurred.

"It seems that the origin of the problem is in Spain, so it would not only be Australia that would have uncertainty over the variety at the moment," he says.

"We don't know how much albarino is in fact incorrectly identified and it's up to producers to identify that."

Max Allan, chief judge at the Australian alternative variety wine show says that the mistake was probably made years ago.

"A lot of people, including me, were getting really excited about the wine that has been made from the grape variety, it would look like formerly being known as albarino," he says.

"It makes very aromatic, crisp style of wine. It got imported by the CSIRO in the 1980's, but it's only been in the past 5 or so years that it's been planted and made into wine."

Rob Walker from the CSIRO says it looks like the confusion may spread outside Australia.

"It seems from the published literature... that the mistake occurred some time ago in the Spanish germplasm collection, so we presume that is the source of the problem, and that is why we presume we've ended up with savagnin Blanc."

Barossa Valley winemaker Damien Tscharke says the finding has the potential to cost his winery significantly.

He has six and a half hectares of the variety planted and says he's been trying to build his brand around the albarino wine style.

"It's going to set us back a long way," he says.

"There's a lot of value in our brand that will be lost."

"We have over a thousand cases of stock ready to sell or that we have been selling through on and a new vintage that we're looking to put into bottle very soon so I'm not sure.