Grenache!

10/6/2009 -

Fall is an ideal time for wine lovers to take a fresh look at Grenache, a grape known and loved for yielding wines with robust fruit, abundant spice, and plush texture. These are the succulent and often sweet flavors of fruit- ripened in southern climates- that initially caused many of us to become besotted by wine. To palates that have been bathed by crisp white, rosé, and light-bodied red all summer long, the warmth of Grenache is just what’s needed as the weather cools down, sometimes too quickly for comfort. Don’t wait for that old bottle of Chateauneuf or Priorat to remind you what there is to love about this grape. Here are a number of wines available to normal humans that have the potential to dispel the notion that the flavors of Grenache are in any way one dimensional.

For me, one such wine was a bottle of 2005 Barral Faugères, purchased at a wine shop in Paris and consumed on the lawn in front of the Sacré Coeur. Perhaps it isn’t accurate to view this as a Grenache experience because Barral blends Grenache with Syrah, Cinsault, Carignan, and Mourvèdre, but the wine seemed to affirm that such broad, sweet flavors can be elegant and profound. Big-boned, intense, full of wild aromas of tiny, dried black berries, funky Languedoc soil, and spicy herbs; it was indicative of an arid climate in a warm vintage- but Faugères is a fairly high altitude appellation, higher than many in the Languedoc, which keeps the wines balanced.

Carbonic maceration, most often associated with Beaujolais, is a stylistically different way to highlight the flavors of Grenache. Michelle Aubrey-Laurent of Domaine Gramenon, a low sulfur fanatic inspired by Jules Chauvet and also a biodynamist, uses carbonic maceration to bring out the fruitiness of the grape. Gramenon reaps the benefits of old vines and low yields, making medium-bodied and highly quaffable wines that rise above the catch-all appellation, Côtes-du-Rhône. In 2008, the exuberant “Laurentides,” demonstrates the potential of this estate, abounding with mixed red and dark berries, pepper, and hard-not-to-love mouth-filling fruitiness.

For Spanish Garnacha, Priorat is hallowed terroir, where unfathomably low-yielding vines and poor soil schist soil called llicorella, result in dark, structured renditions of Garnacha which, unfortunately, are often prohibitively expensive and subverted by international-style winemaking. Fortunately, Spain is a treasure-trove of old-vine Grenache in other areas such as Navarra, Campo de Borja and the hills around Madrid. These wines can be sensational values and we offer a couple of well-priced examples.

If it’s been a little while since you’ve experimented with Grenache, try a couple of these bottles, carefully selected to bring Mediterranean warmth to a chilly fall evening and vigorous flavors and textures to a hearty fall repast.