"My my," she said, with an oeillade meant to be comic.

The name "Oeillade" has two potential origins.

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

According to Master of Wine Jancis Robinson, Oeillade noire tends to produce soft, fruity light bodied red wines of modest alcohol levels that are meant to be released soon after vintage and consumed young.

It has many synonyms, of which perhaps the most confusing is its sale as a table grape called 'Oeillade', although it is different from the "true" Oeillade which is no longer cultivated.

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.

The first undisputed mentioning of Oeillade noire was in a 1676 catalogue of black grape varieties compiled by the French botanist Pierre Magnol where Oeillade is listed along the black-skin grapes of the Terret and Piquepoul families.