Folle blanche (French pronunciation: [fɔl blɑ̃ʃ] ⓘ), also known as Picpoule,[a][b] Gros Plant, and Enrageat blanc, is a wine grape variety from southwest France.
Folle blanche is used in the Loire Valley area and in Brittany around Nantes to produce Gros Plant du Pays Nantais, a very dry and often tartly acidic wine that pairs well with shellfish.
The name Folle is a feminine derivative of the French word fou which means "mad" with ampelographers speculating that this could be a reference to the grapevine's tendency to being highly productive and grow vigorously where ever it is planted.
[4] DNA analysis in the late 20th and early 21st century has concluded that Folle blanche is likely one of the numerous offspring vines of Gouais blanc, though the second parent is currently unknown.
[4] Historically, Folle blanche was planted along the western coast of France from the Loire Valley down through Gascony by Dutch wine merchants who used it in the production of eau de vie.
After the phylloxera epidemic of the 19th century, plantings of Folle blanche declined as wine growers switched to heartier, more rot resistant varieties such as the Baco blanc grape in the Cognac and Armagnac regions.
Additionally, Fuella nera (another grape known under the synonym Folle noire) was once speculated to have been a color mutation but DNA evidence has shown that is not the case.