Unlike most Vitis vinifera wine grapes, Alicante Ganzin is a teinturier with dark flesh that produces red juice.
[1] While Alicante Ganzin is believed by ampelographers to be the progenitor of all French teinturiers, the exact origins of the grape variety are not clear.
Some, such as British wine expert Jancis Robinson, describe the grape as a cross of Alicante Bouschet and a hybrid of a Vitis rupestris variety and Vitis vinifera grape Aramon known as Aramon Rupestris Ganzin No.4.
[3] In 1958, University of California, Davis viticulturist Dr. Harold Olmo crossed Alicante Ganzin with the Portuguese wine grape variety Tinta Cão to produce the red-fleshed variety Rubired that is often used a coloring agent in red wine blends.
[2] Olmo also used Alicante Ganzin to cross with the Jura wine grape Trousseau gris to produce Royalty.