Wine and Spirit

Grenache is the fourth most planted grape variety in the world, and the most planted in Spain, where it is known as garnacha.

Early to bud and late to ripen, grenache is notable in sunny climates for producing large crops fairly easily and making straightforward wines of high alcohol and pleasing strawberry fruit.

When producers reduce the crop load, the remaining bunches are able to produce wines greater character.

In this case, or where the vines are old (up to 50 years and more), grenache has the potential to produce very high-quality wines.

In Spain, garnacha plays a role in Rioja, rounding out the tempranillo.

It is blended sometimes with international varietal cabernet sauvignon in the region of Priorato, but the many old-vine plantings of garnacha there are now being cherished and recognized for their worth.

Most consider the wines from these old-vine Priorato plantings, such as Alvaro Placios L'Ermita and Finca Dofi, the ultimate expression of the tremendous potential of this varietal.

Like many other 'workhorse' grapes, grenache produces superb results when treated with quality as the goal.

In Navarra, garnacha is often bottled as an excellent-value single varietal, especially as rosado (rosé).

In general, the Navarra rosés are the best deal on the market, combining the sun-drenched fruitiness and richness of Spain with a lively, lemony tang.

In France, grenache is planted all over the southern Rhóne.

It adds palate richness and strawberry notes, if not complexity, to the most significant wine in the region, Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Apart from grenache, appelation regulations allow up to 12 other grape varietals for Chateauneuf.

Grenache typically makes up one-third or more of the blend, but one producer, Chateau Rayas, uses 100 percent grenache for its version.

Grenache is also responsible for the high-volume Cotes du Rhone wines offered in every bistro in Paris, both in the red and rosé versions.

Further south in France, grenache makes luscious, rich, fortified wines in Maury and Banyuls, part of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, as well as the ubiquitous and increasingly expensive rosé de Provence.

Australia specializes in GSMs, grenache blended with syrah and mourvédre, the latter being the grape of Provence's Bandol wine.

Proportions vary, but a typical GSM contains about one-third of each grape.

These Rhone-style blends are very attractively priced and often bear the multi-regional appelation 'Southern Australia'.

Grenache is also bottled on its own in the Barossa Valley, South Australia.

The best Australian single-varietal versions are deeply coloured and brooding.

In the USA, grenache production is focused on California.

The state's winemakers turn out a variety of styles, the grape is most often used for blending in Rhone-style wines in several regions.

Since the 1850s, it has been planted for everyday table wine in the Central Valley.

- soft

- velvety

- high alcohol, low acid

- ripe strawberries

- red or rosé