Oeillade noire

[1] The first mention of an œillade grape was in the lyrics of a "harvest song" sung by vineyard workers that was recorded in 1544 by the French author Bonaventure des Périers.

[1] Œillade noire has a long history of being grown throughout southern France including in the Gard, Hérault, Rhône, Vaucluse, Var departments covering mostly what is now the Languedoc and Provence wine regions.

After the phylloxera epidemic of the late 19th and World Wars of the 20th century, plantings of œillade noire sharply diminished and the grape was on the verge of extinction.

It is slowly being revived in the Languedoc region in Saint-Chinian and by at least one wine estate in the town of Béziers who is making a varietal style red and rosé of Oeillade noire.

However the grape is currently not a permitted variety in any Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) designated wines and can only be produced as a vin de table.

Variety of grape
The name œillade could be derived from the French word ouiller that means "to top up" and may be a reference to the winemaking practice of using extra wines to "top up" barrels and other containers to prevent oxidation and spoilage.
While infection of Botrytis cinerea can be welcomed in some white grape varieties, in red wine grapes such as œillade noire it contributes to the viticultural hazard of botrytis bunch rot (pictured) .