GRENACHE
Something of a mercurial presence, Grenache has been much overlooked as a ‘workhorse’ grape variety, yet it’s the key ingredient in one of France’s definitive full-bodied red styles of the Rhône. Elsewhere in the world, winemakers are now beginning to discover and perfect the grape’s ability to express its terroir to the full
I know exactly what my Spanish friends will say when they read the introduction to this article: ‘But Grenache doesn’t even come from the Rhône.’ And they’d be right, of course.
This variety might have originated in Spain, but now there is significantly more on the other side of the Pyrenees. It’s the second-most planted red variety in France at more than 80,000ha (according to the most recent OIV data), and no region has more than the southern Rhône, where plantings across the whole territory exceeded 36,000ha in 2021 (Inter Rhône).
If your benchmark for this grape is dark and gutsy Châteauneuf-du-Pape, however, then prepare for some surprises when you venture further afield.
Grenache is a grape that’s gaining in popularity with pioneering winemakers around the world, as it becomes clear just how faithfully it can reflect terroir. Like the Pinot family, the Grenache clan comes in three colours, but let’s focus on dry reds to see how different countries and regions are expressing their vineyards through a grape that combines delicacy and power, sweet fruits and savoury herbs. Following my recent tasting of 95 wines in all, here are five regions leading the way.
SierradeGredos
Spain
The birth and development of a new wine region is always a joy to witness. What’s remarkable about the Sierra de Gredos is the speed with which it’s established itself, combined with the thrilling singularity of its wines.
The process has no doubt felt rather more gradual for Daniel Landi of Comando G, who deserves high praise for the part he has played in the renaissance of Gredos. He grew up in the village of Méntrida, within these granite mountains, situated about 60km southwest of Madrid.
When Landi was young, Gredos was a poor region producing bulk wine and Grenache (known as Garnacha in Spain), which was considered a contemptible variety. ‘But there are good things about being poor,’ he says. People couldn’t afford to buy herbicides, international varieties or trellising systems, so today the pristine Gredos mountains are almost entirely populated by ancient Grenache bush vines, almost all of which are between 60 and 100 years old.
These high-altitude granitic vineyards (Landi’s vines sit between 900m and 1,200m) see unusually high rainfall, and this terroir makes for a long, slow ripening period that can, in the right hands, produce wines of aromatic finesse and delineated tannins. ‘The soil is the rhythm of your music,’ he says. ��
