One of the world's most widely planted grapes, Grenache is a quintessentially Mediterranean red variety which does best as a low yielding bush vine. It produces powerful, warming, raspberryish reds whose greatest expression, from old, low-yielding vines, is to be found in Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Château Rayas) in France and in Australia's Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale.
It also makes good
fortified reds as in Banyuls, Rivesaltes and Maury. Known in Spain as Garnacha
tinta, where it’s widely planted, particularly in Rioja and Priorat, it fleshes
out the tempranillo. It’s grown in California and in Italy too.
What does it taste like?
- white pepper and raspberry
- thyme and rosemary scents
The light-coloured GRENACHE is a quintessentially Mediterranean red
variety and as a result it often mingles the classic Mediterranean
garrigue scents of thyme, fennel and rosemary with white pepper and its
warming, raspberryish fruit flavours. It tends to be low in tannin and
hence soft and supple and, at its apogee in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, it
takes on heady aromas and spicy, robust fruit flavours which can border
on the raisined.
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