Cinsault: The Featherweight Red That Beats Pinot Noir on Price

If you love Pinot Noir but wince at what a decent bottle costs, this is the grape to know.

Cinsault (you will also see it spelled Cinsaut) is a light, low-tannin red from Southern France that hits many of the same notes as Pinot Noir for a fraction of the outlay. It is pale in the glass, high in perfume, soft in structure, and happiest with a fifteen-minute chill in the fridge before you pour. For decades it was the workhorse behind cheap Languedoc reds and pink wine. In the last few years a handful of growers have shown what it can do when you stop treating it as filler.

What it tastes like

Pour it and the first thing you notice is how light the color is: pale ruby, closer to a dark rosé than a brooding Cabernet. The aromas are red-fruited and floral, red currant and crushed strawberry with a lift of dried herbs and rose petal. On the palate it stays weightless. Tannins are barely there, acidity keeps it fresh, and alcohol usually sits moderate.

That featherweight build is the whole appeal. Cinsault does not want to be big. It wants to be poured slightly cool on a warm evening and drunk without ceremony. Serve it at cellar temperature, around 55°F, and the perfume sharpens.

Why almost nobody talks about it

Cinsault has spent most of its life as a supporting actor. It yields generously, which made it perfect for high-volume Languedoc production and for softening Grenache and Syrah in Rhône-style blends. It is a backbone of Provençal rosé. All of that useful, unglamorous work kept its name off the front label and out of the conversation.

Its most famous contribution is genetic. In 1925 a South African researcher crossed Cinsault with Pinot Noir and produced Pinotage, now the Cape's signature grape. Cinsault, in other words, is half the parentage of a wine far more famous than itself. There is a quiet justice to the underdog grape being the one that gave South Africa its calling card.

Bottles to look for

The interesting Cinsault today comes off old vines, where low yields concentrate what the grape usually spreads thin. South Africa's Swartland is the hotspot: bush vines planted decades ago, farmed by a younger generation of growers, bottled as single-varietal reds rather than blended away. Percheron and the Swartland old-vine bottlings are a reliable, affordable place to start. In Lebanon, Domaine des Tourelles makes a well-regarded old-vine Cinsault (Vieilles Vignes) from vines in the Bekaa Valley. Back in France, look to the Languedoc and the southern Rhône for varietal examples and for the blends where it does its quiet work.

Here is the honest part. Bought young and mass-produced, Cinsault can be thin and forgettable, which is exactly how it earned its reputation as filler. The grape only pays you back from old vines and a careful hand, so the bottle you grab matters more than the grape name on the label. Chase the words "old vine" or "vieilles vignes" and you tilt the odds heavily in your favor.

Where to buy

Disclosure: some links here are affiliate links — if you buy through them I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Learn more

Single-varietal Cinsault runs thinner on US shelves than the rosés and southern French blends it usually disappears into, so you may have to hunt for it. Search the varietal name and look for old-vine Swartland and Languedoc bottlings.

browse Cinsault on Wine.com →

— Chris Berry

If you're switching from a famous grape

Reach for Cinsault when you would normally reach for Pinot Noir and want the same pale color, low tannin, and red-fruit perfume without the Burgundy tax. It will not give you Pinot's full silk and depth, but for weeknight drinking it gets you most of the way for far less. See Wines Like Pinot Noir for the full lineup, and Order This Instead for the swap done for you.

Part of Lesser-Known Wines: 17 Obscure Grapes Worth Switching To — the full underdog-swap guide.