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WINES OF THE TIMES
Grenache Steps Out of Others' Shadows
By ERIC ASIMOV
Published: November 24, 2004
 RENACHE has the dubious distinction of being an uncelebrated presence in some very celebrated wines.
It's not hard to figure out why. More than a few important European grapes
are little known outside their home territories. They are components of wines
named after the region in which the grapes grow, rather than after the grapes
themselves. These grapes hit the big time only after they came to the United
States and were made into wines called cabernet sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay
or syrah. Now they are famous around the world.
But poor grenache has never had that good fortune. Like Gerry and the Pacemakers,
who watched their Liverpool buddies, the Beatles, explode around the world,
grenache has been left by the wayside, wondering why other grapes have had
all the luck.
Of course it's more than a matter of chance. Grenache has been in a position
to achieve New World fame. It was widely planted in California decades ago,
but was used mainly in blended jug wines. Australia, too, planted a lot of
grenache years ago, but many vines were torn out in a frenzy of — what else?
— cabernet planting back in the 1970's and 80's.
Now grenache may be due for a turn in the spotlight. More and more Australian
winemakers have rediscovered the grape, while a few California winemakers
are also starting to focus on grenache. While this may bring it more fame,
let's not forget the regions that know well what grenache can do, like the
southern Rhone Valley, where it's a crucial part of the blend of grapes that
makes up Ch’teauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas and Vacqueyras.
And respect must be paid to Spain, particularly to Priorat and its long-ignored
northeastern regions, where gnarled old vines of garnacha tinta, as grenache
noir is called in Spanish, grow on vineyards so steep they must be tended
by hand. If the American wine industry had been less enamored of France in
its formative years, grenache might be better known as garnacha, since Spain
is where the grape originated.
In an effort to taste the many manifestations of this unsung grape, the Dining
section's wine panel recently sampled 25 wines in which grenache plays a
prominent role. I say prominent role because grenache, like cabernet, is
almost always blended with other grapes. Left to itself, grenache can be
too much of everything: too alcoholic, too hot, too rustic, too jammy. Or,
if yields are too high, it can be thin, limp and lifeless. But if carefully
farmed and blended with mourvËdre and a host of other grapes in the southern
Rhone, or with carignan and maybe a little cabernet in Priorat, grenache
can be an exciting, surprising wine, full of fruit, spice and nut flavors.
My colleague Florence Fabricant and I were joined for the tasting by Beth
von Benz, a wine consultant, and Scott Mayger, the wine director at WD-50,
who is an avowed partisan of grenache, calling it his favorite grape. The
25 wines included 8 from France, 7 from Australia, 6 from Spain and 4 from
California. Overall, the quality of the wines was superb and the diversity
of styles fascinating. Some were dense and concentrated, while others were
lighter-bodied. Some, in the modern mode, seemed quite sweet. Nonetheless
the best shared flavors that were not so much complex as they were deep.
"They are really terroir-expressive," said Mr. Mayger, who had an uncanny
ability to identify which wines were from the Rhone, Spain or Australia.
The Australian wines, typically, are succulent and ripe, while the Rhone
wines have much earthier flavors. The wines from the Priorat, meanwhile,
are intense and powerful: "brooding" is a word I come across often in reviews,
though I think it's far too much of a burden for any wine to be delicious,
powerful and artsy.
Absent from our Top 10, alas, were any of the four American grenaches. I
think this was not so much a verdict on their potential as it was on their
scarcity; we were not able to find American grenaches that I've liked, like
those from Beckmen, Bonny Doon, Neyers or Edmunds St. John.
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