Crosses
In the Middle Ages, the nobility and church of northeast France grew some form of Pinot in favoured plots, while peasants grew a large amount of the much more productive, but otherwise distinctly inferior, Gouais Blanc. Cross-pollination may have resulted from such close proximity, with the genetic distance between the two parents imparting hybrid vigour leading to the viticultural selection of a diverse range of offspring from this cross (which may, nevertheless, have also resulted from deliberate human intervention). In any case, however it occurred, offspring of the Pinot - Gouais cross include: Chardonnay, Aligoté, Auxerrois, Gamay, Melon and eleven others. It should not however be inferred that Pinot noir was the Pinot involved here; any member of the Pinot family appears genetically capable of being the Pinot parent to these ex-Gouais crosses.
In 1925 Pinot noir was crossed in South Africa with the Cinsaut grape (known locally by the misnomer 'Hermitage') to create a unique variety called Pinotage.
Read more about this topic: Pinot Noir
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