Screenshot from the Feb. digital edition:
This short paragraph from an article in the February 2021 edition of The Wine Merchant magazine (UK business publication) is a taster of a few combined extracts from my book on the Roussillon region themed around the Grenache variety. Follow the link above to read the feature (full digital issue) or go to winemerchantmag.com to find out more and buy a printed copy.
"There seems to be a minor buzz about the Grenache variety whether from the south of France, the better-established southern Rhone Valley regions, northeast Spain or South Australia. Best known as a red or ‘black’ variety, Grenache noir in French, in fact it’s a family of grape varieties in three different shades. There’s a strong heritage of old vine Grenache in the Roussillon for making Port-style Vins Doux Naturels, but it has become the region’s defining grape for red (and rosé) wines giving them power (sometimes an unfashionably elevated alcohol level) and lush spicy fruit, although not necessarily such a deep colour or firm tannins. There were 6000 hectares of Grenache in 2016 falling from over 7000 ha ten years earlier; if it continued to diminish while not being replaced sufficiently, that heritage could be lost for ever at the expense of newer arrivals such as Syrah..."
Or here's the full works:
The Roussillon - ‘French Catalonia’, Wild Wine Country by Richard Mark James.
While avoiding rehashing all those been-said-a-hundred-times-before clichés about how vast the South of France’s wine regions were/are, the book focuses exclusively on a small and unique part of it called the Roussillon. All of that ‘biggest vineyard in France and the world’ hyperbole, which is simply not accurate in this case but the Roussillon usually still gets stuck in with the whole of the Languedoc and greater region beyond, whether they like it or not. The Roussillon accounts for just 7.5% of that overall ‘region’, as the French understand it (now called Occitanie), in terms of vineyards (about 20,000 hectares in 2019) and below two percent of total French wine production. This is one of many good reasons why it should be treated as a distinct entity in its own right, even if historically and stylistically it does form part of the French Mediterranean South.
There seems to be a minor buzz about the Grenache variety whether from the south of France, the better-established southern Rhone Valley regions, northeast Spain or South Australia. Best known as a red or ‘black’ variety, Grenache noir in French, in fact it’s a family of grape varieties in three different shades. There’s a strong heritage of old vine Grenache in the Roussillon for making Port-style Vins Doux Naturels (VDN), but it has become the region’s defining grape for red (and rosé) wines giving them power (sometimes an unfashionably elevated alcohol level) and lush spicy fruit, although not necessarily such a deep colour or firm tannins. There were 6000 hectares of Grenache in 2016 falling from over 7000 ha ten years earlier; if it continued to diminish while not being replaced sufficiently, that heritage could be lost for ever at the expense of newer arrivals such as Syrah.
The same can be said for its ‘white’ variety cousins Grenache blanc and Grenache gris that have also experienced more removal than planting. There were 1300 and 1000 hectares of each respectively (2016) representing a drop of 30% since 2005, although this decrease would correspond to reduced demand for certain VDN wines which these two varieties were traditionally complementary to (with Macabeu). However, with more interest in dry white wines in the Roussillon in recent years and a dwindling supply of suitable vine-stock, growers in certain areas have been keen to replant more Grenache blanc and gris such as coastal vineyards in Collioure. Grenache blanc lends richness aroma and body while Grenache gris is more exotic floral and zestier, although both successfully make either aromatic unoaked or full-bodied barrel-fermented white wines, as well as gris being useful for rosé thanks to its pink-tinged skins.
The Appellation d’Origine Protegée (AOP) regions of Côtes du Roussillon and Côtes du Roussillon Villages (CRV) permit up to 70% Grenache noir for red wines (and for rosé for the former), and up to 90% for Collioure red and rosé. Whereas Indication Géographique Protegée (IGP) Côtes Catalanes or Vin de France caters for 100% Grenache for those wishing to make a pure expressive varietal style (red, white and rosé) or a statement-making red Grenache that deliberately doesn’t fit the control-freakish appellation regulations.
A new CRV village subzone bearing the Maury name was a long time in the making, and finally Maury Sec AOP (‘dry’ Maury) was launched from the 2011 vintage for red wines sourced from the same zone as for Maury VDN fortified reds. It made absolute sense given this whole area is home to some of the Roussillon’s most inspirational full-on red wines, which until then took the Côtes du Roussillon Villages or IGP rank depending on the wine. The AOP catchment extends either side and south of Maury in the far north of the Roussillon totalling a relatively small area of 270 hectares (2019), where the terrain is suitably wild with hillside vineyards on black schist and marl surrounded by scrubland. Common sense prevailed over the guidelines for authorised grapes: Grenache noir must be ‘the principal variety’ with Carignan, Mourvèdre, Syrah or Lladoner Pelut as ‘complementary’. There still has to be a minimum of two grapes though with Grenache quantified at 60% to 80% of the blend.
Maury has a certain proven track-record which should be an advantage on the marketing front. And the same original mistake made with CRV was avoided where winegrowers were forced to include a specific amount of Syrah in their wine, even if there was little tradition of it being planted in this area. The Maury sec ‘terms & conditions’ do stipulate the winemaker has to include at least 60% Grenache, which is after all THE sexy Maury and Roussillon grape. But you have to wonder why they weren’t a little bolder with a cap of 80% on the Grenache content – after all most Maury VDN is made from 100% Grenache noir – to grant those who can handle this variety’s qualities the freedom to create pure knockout wines. Nothing against Syrah or Mourvèdre, but it would give winemakers carte blanche to craft really distinctive reds that taste different from many in the Languedoc or Roussillon: rich spicy Mediterranean reds with a hilly twist!
Ten years on, Maury sec appears to have panned out well in practice with many winemakers experimenting then finding the style they think fits the name best. What it has done is provided growers with the context to select their best blocks of Grenache and use the appellation as a way of producing and promoting expressive single site reds, which previously would have been labelled as either CRV or IGP. In any case, there are no doubt those who’ll continue to make ‘old style’ dry Maury reds (often 100% Grenache) under the Côtes Catalanes banner, as they always have done never caring about appellation rules. But, like top Collioure reds, these wines can be expensive, the downside of trying to make money from the Roussillon’s generally speaking low-yielding and economically unforgiving vine-lands.
More information on Richard James’ book ‘Roussillon - French Catalonia, Wild Wine Country’ is on his blog WineWriting.com with 'French Mediterranean Wine'.
Source of stats: Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins du Roussillon, CIVR: www.roussillon.wine
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