diff --git a/src/main/thrift/parquet.thrift b/src/main/thrift/parquet.thrift
index 5d4431d9..e4478e5f 100644
--- a/src/main/thrift/parquet.thrift
+++ b/src/main/thrift/parquet.thrift
@@ -384,6 +384,9 @@ struct BsonType {
  * Embedded Variant logical type annotation
  */
 struct VariantType {
+  // The version of the variant specification that the variant was
+  // written with.
+  1: optional i8 specification_version
 }
 
 /**