Chasan is a white French wine

French wine

French wine is produced in several regions throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France has the world's second-largest total vineyard area, behind Spain, and is in the position of being the world's largest wine producer...

 grape variety grown primarily in the Languedoc wine

Languedoc wine

Languedoc - Roussillon wine, including the vin de pays labeled Vin de Pays d'Oc, is produced in southern France. While "Languedoc" can refer to a specific historic region of France and Northern Catalonia, usage since the 20th century has primarily referred to the northern part of the...

 region. According to the Vitis International Variety Catalogue

Vitis International Variety Catalogue

The Vitis International Variety Catalogue is a database of various species and varieties/cultivars of grapevine, the genus Vitis. VIVC is administered by the Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding in Siebeldingen, Germany, and contains information from grapevine collections existing in...

, the variety is a crossing of Listan and Pinot

Pinot

-Grape varieties:* One of several grape varieties and associated wines** Pinot blanc ** Pinot gris ** Pinot meunier** Pinot noir...

. However, some sources (such as wine experts Jancis Robinson

Jancis Robinson

Jancis Mary Robinson OBE, MW is a British wine critic, journalist and editor of wine literature. She currently writes a weekly column for the Financial Times, and writes for her website jancisrobinson.com...

 and Oz Clarke

Oz Clarke

Robert "Oz" Clarke is a British wine writer, television presenter and broadcaster.-Biography:Clarke’s parents were a chest physician and a nursing sister. He was brought up near Canterbury with a brother and a sister. Clarke became a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral and subsequently won a choral...

) describe the grape as a crossing between Listan and Chardonnay

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine. It is originated from the Burgundy wine region of eastern France but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand...

. All sources agree, however, that the variety was created in 1958 by Paul Truel at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique

Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique

The Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique is a French public research institute dedicated to scientific studies surrounding the problems of agriculture...

(INRA) - Unité Expérimentale du Domaine de Vassal & Montpellier SupAgro. One possible source for the confusion of the grapes parentage is that a common synonym

Synonym

Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...

 of several clones of Chardonnay are sometimes listed as Pinot Chardonnay and Chardonnay, itself, was a crossing of Pinot and the obscure French wine grape Gouais blanc

Gouais Blanc

Gouais Blanc or Weißer Heunisch is a white grape variety that is seldom grown today but is important as the ancestor of many traditional French and German grape varieties. The name Gouais derives from the old French adjective ‘gou’, a term of derision befitting its traditional status as the grape...

.

Wine region

While the grape is a recommended planting for every major French wine region except Alsace, Chasan is only planted on a limited scale in the Languedoc region where it is usually found in experimental vin de pays

Vin de pays

Vin de pays is a French term meaning "country wine". Vins de pays are a step in the French wine classification which is above the table wine classification, but below the VDQS and Appellation d'origine contrôlée classifications...

blends.

Viticulture

Like Chardonnay, Chasan is an early budding variety and can be at risk for springtime frost. However, like the Pinot family, the variety tends to ripens late and often doesn't develop the sugars or complexity to make a varietal

Varietal

"Varietal" describes wines made primarily from a single named grape variety, and which typically displays the name of that variety on the wine label. Examples of grape varieties commonly used in varietal wines are Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Merlot...

wine similar to either Chardonnay or most of the Pinot family of grapes.