A supple red bred in Pully and grown only in Switzerland
Open a Garanoir with grilled meat or a fish fondue chinoise, the Swiss hot-pot cooked in broth: this deep-coloured red is fruity and supple, less spicy than its sibling Gamaret. Bred in Pully in 1970, it grows only in Switzerland, mainly in Vaud and Geneva. On Helvitic you will buy it from the winery.
Orders are not open yet: online payment is still in its test phase. Once it opens, each winery sells its own bottles.
Swiss Wine Promotion, the body that promotes Swiss wine, describes it as deep-coloured, fruity and supple. It is fruitier, less concentrated and less spicy than Gamaret, while still bringing colour and tannin to blends.
Its strong colour comes from maceration: the juice stays in contact with the skins, which hold the pigments. Garanoir sometimes lacks a little acidity, the freshness that makes your mouth water. It is made as a red, alone or often with Gamaret, and also as a rosé.
It was born in 1970 in Pully, on the Caudoz estate of Agroscope, the Swiss federal agricultural research centre. Its breeder, André Jaquinet, also created Diolinoir. Like Gamaret, Garanoir comes from a cross of Gamay and Reichensteiner, a white German grape.
The aim was an early-ripening red close to Pinot Noir and Gamay, but more resistant to grey rot. It was first called Gastar, then Granoir, before becoming Garanoir, an invented name. It has been on sale since 1990.
Only in Switzerland, according to Swiss Wine Promotion. The Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) lists it as the country's fifth red grape. Vaud has more than half of it and Geneva about a fifth; the Valais follows, with a few hectares in many other cantons.
It ripens early and resists grey rot well, a mould that spoils ripe grapes in damp weather. The charts on this page show the area by canton.
Serve it with grilled meat, as Swiss Wine Promotion suggests, or with a spiced dark chocolate dessert. Its soft tannins do not overpower a simple dish.
For a fish fondue chinoise, Rodrigo Banto, winemaker at the Cave de la Côte, suggests a white or rosé, or a very light red such as Garanoir, in an interview published by Lucul. Our Gamaret page covers its fuller-bodied sibling.
Garanoir: official 2025 figures
Two siblings from the same cross. Garanoir is fruitier and softer, Gamaret spicier and more tannic. They are often blended.
It resists grey rot well, but not downy or powdery mildew. So it is not a resistant grape in today's sense, unlike Divico.
Yes. Garanoir is made as a red or a rosé. For rosé, the juice only stays briefly on the skins, hence the pale colour.
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