Cin City – London’s first comprehensive Cinsault tasting

What’s the most underrated red grape variety in the world? Most of us have an underdog we like to get behind, and at the top of my list is Cinsault.

It has long been considered a second-class variety, but more and more talented winemakers are now convinced of its quality, creating wines of unusual transparency, clarity and definition. And not a moment too soon. Over the past two decades, few varieties have been ripped from global vineyards at the same rate as Cinsault.

I pulled together 37 wines, and a panel of five experts, to help reveal where Cinsault is flourishing and who is making the finest examples of this beguiling variety.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top-scoring Cinsault wines

A grape in search of itself

Cinsault originated in the south of France. It produces big bunches of large grapes that are delicious straight from the vine. These big, juicy berries can make for large yields, so it has long been known for quantity, rather than quality.

On top of this, in a land that values darkly-coloured wines, Cinsault produces reds with a very pale tint. ‘It has never been taken seriously,’ says Florian André of Château de Manissy – one of the growing band of Rhône winemakers who are now convinced of its potential.

Drawn to hot weather, Cinsault wandered the southern Mediterranean in search of prosperity: Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Turkey. But it wasn’t until it travelled further still, to South Africa and Chile, that it was really understood.

Some grapes, such as Nebbiolo, rarely ever produce great wines outside their own backyard, but Cinsault is the opposite. It needed to leave home before it could really thrive.

A quixotic variety

Cinsault produces red wines – but only just. In many ways, they have more in common with whites. These aren’t substantial wines, built around tannin and density, they’re fragrant wines built around acidity, their slender tannins often closer to a fine Darjeeling than a Cabernet Sauvignon.

It takes well to whole bunch fermentation, which can help to bolster its structure and add herbal notes to its high-definition red fruit flavours. I typically found crunchy redcurrant, raspberry and cranberry alongside herbal bitters and blood orange.

South African Lukas van Loggerenberg makes an excellent example. ‘Me and my cellar team love the grape in the cellar during harvest,’ he says. ‘There’s always this beautiful perfume of rose petals in the air.’

These are lightly extracted wines, often with little or no obvious oak influence, and moderate alcohol. They are the opposite of the thick, heavy-going, ‘icon’ wines of the 1990s. They are wines of space and light.

And, like white wines, they need to be chilled. Not fully, just half way to fridge temperature. These are dry, refreshing tonics, often with a bitter nip at the end.

Cin City: the tasting

Five Cinsault-loving wine writers gathered together on 21st September at The Drapers Arms, Islington, to share their impressions: Alice Lascelles, Alistair Cooper MW, Henry Jeffreys, Sarah Abbott MW and myself.

We tasted 37 wines from five countries, all at least 85% Cinsault, and averaged our scores to create a leaderboard.

Cinsault wines leaderboard

A remarkable seven out of the top 10 wines were from South Africa. As a country that has so embraced innovation and terroir expression of late, it’s no surprise that they’ve had such success with Cinsault; they just seem to get it more than any other nation. Their impressive stocks of old vines – and brave winemakers – no doubt helps.

It’s a grape which seems at home across the whole of the Coastal Region, with excellent wines from Darling, Franschhoek, Stellenbosch, Swartland and Wellington.

See Cinsault: South Africa’s new star from old vines

Compared to other countries, the South African examples tended to be particularly pale and herbal expressions of the grape, often with impressive finesse and tension.

Examples from Chile were all from one region however, Itata Valley, in the south of the country. Results were more mixed, but with one in the top ten, Chile also proved it can weave magic with Cinsault, often in a slightly plumper, rounder style.

Pure Cinsault remains relatively rare in France, and the four wines we tasted were typically more concentrated than the South African and Chilean versions. After the tasting, Nick Gibson, owner of the Drapers Arms, unearthed a rare bottle of Pas de l’Escalette Ze Cinsault 2019 from the pub’s excellent cellar, which demonstrated the potential in Pic Saint Loup.

With only two examples from California and one from Lebanon, it’s hard to draw any conclusions. But with both countries placing a wine in the top five, Cinsault clearly feels at home in both.

Cinsault has arrived

Faouzi Issa of Domaine des Tourelles in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley explains that in the 1980s, grapes like Cinsault were pulled out in favour of ‘rough, tough French varieties’ like Cabernet Sauvignon, but he believes the future in his region belongs to Mediterranean grapes such as Carignan and Cinsault. And with its love of hot, dry places, it’s well suited to endure the challenges of our changing climate.

With such an unusual profile, Cinsault won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But after years of being misunderstood and maltreated, Cinsault’s star has finally risen.

My personal tasting notes and scores are featured below.

See Matt Walls’ top-scoring Cinsault wines

Related content

Cinsault: South Africa’s new star from old vinesWalls: Why Syrah is the most adaptable grape in the worldCornas 2018 in bottle: full overview plus top-scoring wines