The seventh grape of Champagne

Although I had stated that there are 6 permitted grapes for making Champagne in the blog entry about the cuvee de 6 cepage from Moutard, I was wrong; there is a seventh grape. The grape is called Fromenteau locally but is in fact none other than Pinot Gris elsewhere in France. Thus the permissible cepage for Champagne contains four variations of Pinot Noir - Pinots Blanc and Gris being colour variants by mutation and Pinot Meunier being a chimeric variant giving a downy underside to its leaves (cf Grenache with colour variants as well as Garnacha Peluda). Chardonnay sort of bridges the pedigree, being a crossing of a Pinot grape with Gouais blanc, which also gives Petit Meslier when crossed with Savignin. That leaves Arbane, for which no pedigree information is easily available.