2011 Domaine Saint-Germain Persan

My husband got this bottle as a gift from the local package store that he frequents. The owner wanted him to taste this wine made from the Persan grape. The wine comes from Domaine Saint-Germain in Savoie. Have you ever heard of this grape? We hadn't. The wine in the glass was ruby red in color and the flavor reminded us of Cabernet Franc with the acidity of a Barbera. We had this with a fatty osso buco based spaghetti so it paired really well.

But, back to the grape. What is the Persan?
I looked at a few books before I heaved out Jancis Robinson's Wine Grapes from our bookshelf and found the entry for Persan where it is written that the Persan is a Rare but high-quality Savoie variety on a voyage of rediscovery. Much of the information that is contained in this entry has been reproduced on the Wikipedia entry on Persan. In the Savoie region, there are just 9 ha (22 acres) planted to Persan. The wines tend to be tannic with good acidity and well suited to aging! Guyot thought that the Persan was a local mutation of Pinot Noir, but genetic testing showed that this is not the case.
References:
1. J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours, pg 783-784, Allen Lane 2012 ISBN 978-1-846-14446-2. Illustration of Persan is also from this book.