World of Wine | Glorious Grenache

WORLD OF WINE

Glorious Grenache

BY MIRA HONEYCUTT

Grenache is a temptingly delicious wine. The Rhône-style red wine is a rush of juicy fruit on the palate, a compote of red currants, red cherries, and wild strawberries, nuanced with pepper, spice, and anise.

Grenache fans or “Grenachistas” gathered to taste the glories of this wine on September 16, known as the International Grenache Day, recognizing one of the most widely planted wine grape varieties in the world.

The event hosted by the Rhône Rangers organization was held at Robert Hall Winery in Paso Robles. Some 30 Rhône Ranger member wineries from Paso Robles, Santa Barbara County, Monterey County, Sonoma Valley, and Oregon were in attendance, all offering different expressions of this versatile grape. There was grenache blanc, grenache noir, grenache-based blends and Rosé of grenache.

Grenache noir, popularly known as grenache, traces its origins to Spain’s Rioja region, where it’s known as garnacha and commonly blended with tempranillo in Rioja wines. In recent years, the grenache acreage has declined and been replaced by plantings of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, syrah, and tempranillo.

France now rules as the world’s leading producer of grenache. With 70% of the acreage in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, grenache is a driving component of the exalted blends of this region in France’s southern Rhône region. In the Provence region, grenache produces some of the most fragrant Rosé wines.

Meanwhile, in Australia and California, grenache is an essential grape for blending with syrah and mourvedre. With medium body and medium tannin levels, the juicy wine sings with red fruit flavors highlighted by bracing acids. I notice in Paso; many winemakers are now adding a splash of petite sirah to grenache for a deeper, richer wine.

Here along the Central Coast, grenache can show different characteristics: a fruity wine with bright acidity if it’s grown in SLO Coast AVA’s cooler climate or plush and rich from the warmer Paso Robles region.

“What I love about grenache is its versatility,” said Ted Ross, owner of Hayseed and Housdon, a boutique Paso Robles winery.

“Depending on terroir and winemaking technique, one can produce a grenache that is comparable to a pinot – moderately light in texture and ABV [alcohol by volume] with bright acidity and an interesting combination of baking spices,” noted Ross of his Rhône Rodeo grenache, from fruit he sources from Jesperson Vineyard in the cool climate of Edna Valley.

“Grenache produces delicious wines as a single-varietal and lends generous fruit and refreshing acidity to mourvedre and syrah in blends,” noted Ian Consoli in an email exchange. Consoli, Media and Marketing manager at Tablas Creek Vineyard, continued: “There’s plenty of acidity and a crunchy, vibrant finish. We [at Tablas Creek] love the generosity of grenache.”

The Rhône grapes are grown in its namesake region, which stretches along the Rhône River to the Mediterranean in the southern part of France. The region’s indigenous 22 varieties of grapes (red and white) known as the Rhône grapes inspire the Rhône-style wines, known as such internationally. Of the 22 varieties, syrah, grenache, and mourvedre are the most popular red grapes; and viognier, roussanne, marsanne, and grenache blanc make up the largest white category.

In the northern part of the Rhône region, syrah rules. The spicy wine with a bold tannic structure is the hallmark wine from the appellations of Côte Rôtie and Hermitage. Grenache is the star in southern Rhône, supported by syrah and mourvedre in the popular GSM blends.

In California, grenache traces its history back to the 1800s in Central Valley, where it was used as a blending component in jug wines. Due to poor quality, over time, its demands declined, and grenache plantings were replaced by cabernet sauvignon.

In the 1970s, the Rhône Rangers movement brought attention to grenache and other Rhône-style grapes in California, making the state the epicenter of Rhône-style wines. The movement was led by Randall Grahm at his Bonny Doon Winery in Santa Cruz Mountains. He was soon joined by other like-minded Central Coast winemakers, among them Bob Lindquist, Adam Tolmach, Steve Edmund, and Sean Thackrey.

Then came the iconic Le Mistral in 1974, the first varietal syrah made by Napa Valley’s Joseph Phelps Winery. In 1975, Gary Eberle made history with the first large commercial planting of syrah in California at Paso Roble’s Estrella River Winery.

Tablas Creek Vineyards in Paso Robles pushed the movement further with its Franco-American joint-venture in 1989, where Robert Haas, an American wine importer, partnered with the Perrin family of Chateau de Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

In the pantheon of Rhône-style wines, the GSM blend leads along the Central Coast. Yet it’s grenache that’s now taking center stage. 