There are exceptions, of course, and two of my favorites are both produced in New York: the Channing Daughters Tocai Friulano, a crisp dry white made from a Friulian grape, and a minerally white Rkatsiteli, a Russian grape grown by Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars in the Finger Lakes district.
While the whitegrape variety Chenin Blanc still remains the most planted in South Africa, its percentage of vineyard area has fallen in the past 10 years.
All 24 sites could be accounted for if the first Cabernet Sauvignon vine was a hybrid between Cabernet Franc (another red variety from Bordeaux) and Sauvignon Blanc (a whitegrape grown widely in western France).