Grenache on the rise plus 40 to try from around the world

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).

Scroll down to see Matt Walls’ top-scoring Grenache wines from around the world

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.

See all 40 of Matt Walls’ recommended Grenache wines to try

Sierra de Gredos

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. ‘Granite gives tension and acidity.’ It produces Grenache that’s pale, perfumed and Pinotesque. Other producers to look out for are Bodega Marañones and 4 Monos Viticultores.

The mountain range covers three separate DOs: Vinos de Madrid, Méntrida and Cebreros. ‘But we have to talk about Gredos like a single region,’ says Landi; ‘it makes no sense to talk about different DOs.’ Like any mountain range, there are valleys and hillsides with their own unique aspects; to explore them, find a copy of his book – Calicata, Gredos as Terroir – a collaboration between Comando G, other local winemakers and journalists, published in November 2022 (£60 via Les Caves de Pyrene).

Thirty years ago, it was Priorat on everybody’s lips: another mountainous region with plentiful old-vine Grenache, along with Carignan. It’s known for powerful, structured wines but the style has evolved recently towards clarity and precision, including some excellent pure Grenache bottlings. If you’ve been put off by burly wines in the past, try Mas Martinet’s Els Escurçons (2018, £79.68 Justerini & Brooks) and Terroir al Límit’s Les Manyes (2018, £153 Berry Bros & Rudd), both pure Grenache; or Alvaro Palacios’ Finca Dofí (more than 80% Grenache; 2019, £61-£76 Berry Bros & Rudd, Vinvm, Woodshire Wines).

In Spain, ‘there were no world-class Garnachas 10 years ago’, says Landi. There are now.

Santa Barbara

California, USA

Grenache is a versatile grape, producing red wines which range from the dark and muscular, such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas, through to the pale and delicate. Most regions outside the Rhône produce wines that inhabit the lighter end of the spectrum – including many of the best Grenache-based wines of California.

It was once the second-most planted grape here, but Grenache vineyards have dwindled since the mid-1970s to about 1% of total plantings (Capstone California, 2021). Producers of the ‘Rhône Ranger’ movement that started in the 1990s were always more focused on Syrah. But since 2000 there has been renewed interest in Grenache, with a proliferation of new vineyards springing up in quality AVAs.

There are interesting examples from Sonoma Valley, Sierra Foothills and San Luis Obispo, but the most impressive Grenache-based wines I’ve tasted to date have been from Santa Barbara on the Central Coast. The style here is typically very pale in colour, with light extraction – some of the reds are verging on rosé. They work on subtle balances of acidity and alcohol, with slight tannins and fresh faces. Some could be accused of being too light, in fact, lacking concentration and flavour intensity.

But not those of A Tribute to Grace’s Angela Osborne. She only makes pure Grenache, and works nine sites around California, including Santa Barbara. ‘I love its ability to show both yin and yang,’ she says. ‘Grenache has this incredible balance between the masculine and the feminine, in terms of qualities, aromatics, energies… it’s the perfect expression of grace as an attribute.’

Osborne cites Château Rayas as an influence, and like its wines, hers are pale with haunting herbal nuances from whole-bunch fermentation and refreshingly pure red fruit accents. Other producers to look out for are Railsback Frères, Birichino, Fine Disregard and The Language of Yes – the new project from Rhône-freak Randall Grahm.

The proportion of Grenache grown in the Pacific Northwest is even smaller than in California, in 2021 representing some 0.88% of the declared annual crush in Washington state, for example. But given the incredible quality of some Washington state examples, it will surely increase. Some of the best-known Grenache-based wines of Washington are produced by Frenchman Christophe Baron, under his Cayuse label, which for many are the benchmark. But don’t miss Pášxa (pronounced ‘pahk-sha’), the new project by winemaker Todd Alexander in the Rocks District AVA of Oregon – Grenache scented with raspberry and rose, spherical and jewel-bright.

The Rayas effect

Pale colour, light extraction, whole-bunch fermentation… If Grenache winemakers around the world are looking to any Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate for inspiration, it’s clear which one: Château Rayas, based just to the northeast of the hilltop town.

‘I would say I get inspiration from producers such as Rayas, but I would never try to emulate it,’ says Todd Alexander at Pášxa in Oregon. ‘Rayas is Rayas, and there is room for whatever I do to stand on its own as well. I drink, study and enjoy these other wines but I endeavour to make what I think are the best wines from the sites that I work with, without trying to copy anyone.

‘I only have my own vineyard to work with, and I believe in terroir, so no matter what I do there is going to be some inherent quality to the wines. The winemaking can augment those qualities, and I hope it does!’

Even if other Grenache winemakers wanted to emulate the style of Rayas, it wouldn’t be easy – winemaker Emmanuel Reynaud prefers to keep the mysteries of Rayas closely guarded.

McLaren Vale

South Australia

Despite its wealth of hot, dry vineyard land, Australia has similar levels of Grenache planted as California – 1,507ha, equating to just 1.1% of plantings (Wine Australia ‘Variety snapshot 2022’). About a quarter of this is found in the Barossa Valley, where it makes powerful examples that can be Rhône-like in their power and thrust, such as John Duval’s Annexus (2019, £49.95-£53.50 Alexander Hadleigh, Hedonism, KWM).

McLaren Vale is home to just an eighth of Australia’s Grenache vineyards, and along with Barossa, some of its oldest vines. Thanks to its slightly cooler climate and sandy soils, it makes wines of remarkable finesse, showing just how well this variety can express terroir – McLaren Vale Grenache has a unique profile all of its own. One of the most exciting producers is Yangarra, a biodynamic estate where Peter Fraser has been winemaker since 2000. He opts for long, gentle extraction for his top cuvées, and ages them in large, old wooden vats and ceramic eggs, which accentuates the purity of his old-vine Grenache.

‘McLaren Vale Grenache at its best has a vibrancy and brightness towards the primarily red fruit spectrum and it is very perfumed,’ says Fraser. ‘However, its most distinguishing character can be its fine line of acidity and tannin structure, which brings a wine of purity and precision. The closest comparison is some of the cutting-edge producers of Sierra de Gredos, but more from a minerality and tannin line.’

There is already burgeoning interest in sub-regional expressions, such as Blewitt Springs and Clarendon. It’s taken some time for Grenache to be taken seriously in Australia but with a warming climate and wines such as Yangarra’s High Sands guiding the way, perhaps the time has finally come for it to fulfil its undeniable potential. Other producers capturing the fine-sand textural nuances of McLaren Vale in their Grenaches include Thistledown, SC Pannell and MMAD – the new Blewitt Springs project from (DWWA Co-Chair) Michael Hill Smith MW and partners.

South Africa

Given that South Africa is the undisputed master of pure Cinsault, another southern Rhône grape capable of great finesse, I had high hopes for its pure Grenaches in my tasting. The hit rate however wasn’t as high as Australia or California, and regional differences weren’t so distinct. This could be down to the lack of old-vine material, or the fact that, despite a steady increase in plantings throughout the Cape over the past 10 years, it still doesn’t grow a great deal – 552ha in 2022 (SAWIS) placing it 11th on the country’s list of red plantings.

Once again, the pale, light extraction trend was strongly in evidence. Picking early can help to keep alcohol levels in check, which is a positive when it comes to Grenache, a grape that is notorious for its potency. But picking too soon can result in wines that lack depth, ageability and terroir expression. And when gentle, red-fruited styles of Grenache are combined with oak – such as many South African examples I tasted – the effect is an uneasy combination of sweet fruit and drying tannins.

There are, however, some excellent individual wines with nuance and complexity that prove great Grenache is possible here, it’s just taking a little longer for South Africa to find its voice. Despite technically being in three different wine regions, the three most impressive examples (Illimis, Pearl Mountain and AA Badenhorst) are grown close together in similar terroir: hot, inland vineyards of granite or slate to the northeast of Cape Town. A future hotspot for South African Grenache? It’s possible.

Roussillon

Southwest France

Nestled beneath the Pyrenees in southern France, the Roussillon is more or less halfway between Priorat in Catalonia, Spain, and the southern Rhône. This would be a good description of the typical style of Grenache here, too, if it wasn’t quite so varied. Historically the wines here were sweet and fortified, but the past few decades have seen dry wines rapidly take their place, and you can find everything from 12% vins de soif to 16% dry Port equivalents. With there being little in the way of inhibiting historical precedent, creativity can run wild.

One trend that’s common around the world with Grenache is whole-bunch fermentation. It’s not as ubiquitous in the Roussillon, but it can add texture, freshness and reduce alcohol levels, so it can be a welcome approach here.

Local masters of this method are brothers Benoît and Sébastien of biodynamic Domaine Danjou-Banessy. Their Estaca cuvée, from 130-year-old Grenache vines grown on slate, is atypically pale for a Roussillon Grenache, with mind-bendingly complex herbal aromas that are derived in part from using stems in their ferments. It’s unforgettable.

Those looking for darker, richer styles of Grenache will have to step carefully here to avoid elevated alcohols, but will find satisfaction with Domaine Singla, Mas de Lavail and Domaine Madeloc, the Collioure project of Côte-Rôtie maestro Pierre Gaillard.

Exploring Grenache: Walls’ top-scoring Grenache from around the world

See all 40 of Matt Walls’ recommended Grenache wines here

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