February 20th, 2024Wine notes
with Clive Hartley
Grenache offering a fresh approach
Apply within! There is a vacancy in Australian red wine styles at present. Shiraz has lost its Midas touch but there are plenty to choose from and one of them applying is grenache.
It is ideally suited to the hotter regions around the country, being a late ripening variety and having the ability to withstand drought and heat. Globally, grenache is a widely planted grape variety, found principally in southern France and Spain.
It had its origins in Spain and is often blended with tempranillo to produce Rioja and Navarra (Navarre) wines.
In France it goes into Châteauneuf-du- Pape and Côte-du-Rhône wines, as well as contributing to the production of Tavel Rosé. It is found throughout Southern France, so any of our Mediterranean climate
regions are likely to produces some good wines.
McLaren Vale springs to mind and I was recently there and talking to Yangarra Estate winemaker Peter Fraser.
Yangarra specialises in varietals grown in southern France such as roussanne, piquepoul, cinsault, mourvèdre, carignan and counoise. In fact they grow 15 different grape varieties spread over 87 hectares of sandy, sun- drenched soils.
Yangarra Estate is located in the Blewitt Springs subregion. Chester Osborn, winemaker at d’Arenberg, first alerted me to this subregion as a good breeding ground for grenache.
“The sand and clay soil works well. When they haven’t been fertilised the sands give very good aromatics and when the yields are kept right back they get very solid vibrant tannins.”
To add to his use of some lesser-known grape varieties Peter Fraser has heavily invested in the use of 675-litre ceramic eggs for fermentation and maturation. These are used for his Ovitelli Grenache that sees over 130 days on skins.
No oak is used and tasting its elegant and textured fine tannin structure you don’t miss it at all.
Whilst single varietal grenache can be attractive, it is when the grape is used in blends that it really hits the spot as an alternative wine style and brings out the best in the grape variety.
Normally we see grenache used in a GSM blend, but what Yangarra Estate is doing differently is to reduce to a minimum the often-dominant shiraz and mourvèdre.
They replace it with carignan, cinsault and counoise to make a fragrant, floral, light but textured, red fruit-driven wine with a tannin finish.
At the $30 mark the wine is a modern McLaren Vale wine that offers a wine drinker a fresh approach.
Clive Hartley is an award-winning wine writer, educator and consultant. His Australian Wine Guide (7th ed) is available for purchase from Paradise Books in Daylesford or via his website – www.australianwineguide.com.au
