Mourvèdre

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"Torrentes" redirects here. For the white wine grape with a similar name, see Torrontés.
Mourvèdre
Grape (Vitis)
Mourvèdre grapes
SpeciesVitis vinifera
Also calledMataro, Monastrell, (more)
OriginMediterranean coast of Spain
Notable regionsFrance, Spain, Australia, United States
VIVC number7915

Mourvèdre (also known as Mataro or Monastrell) is a red

fortified wines.[2]

Mourvèdre tends to produce tannic wines that can be high in alcohol. The style of wine produced from the grapes varies greatly according to where it is produced, but according to wine expert Jancis Robinson Mourvèdre wines often have wild game, or earthy notes to them, with soft red fruit flavors.[3] According to wine expert Oz Clarke, young Mourvèdre can come across as faulted due to the reductive, sulfur notes and "farmyard-y" flavors that some wines can exhibit before those flavors mellow with age.[4]

The variety can be a difficult grape to grow, preferring "its face in the hot sun and its feet in the water" meaning that it needs very warm weather, a low leaf-to-fruit ratio but adequate water or

powdery and downy mildew as well as overly vigorous foliage can present additional problems for vine growers.[2]

History

Mourvèdre from an early 20th-century ampelography text

Most wine historians agree that Mourvèdre is likely to be Spanish in origin, though its exact history is difficult to pinpoint.

Valencia while the name Mataro is thought to have come from Mataró, Catalonia near the modern-day city of Barcelona.[5] Despite this close association with Murviedro and Mataró, the grape became known in Spain as Monastrell for reasons that are still unknown though Oz Clarke speculates that a "neutral" name may have been chosen so as not to offend the local pride of both regions.[4]

Mourvèdre had a well-established presence in

Rhone.[5] There it had a well established foothold until the phylloxera epidemic of the mid to late 19th century decimated plantings.[2] As the French and other European wine regions recovered from the phylloxera scourge by grafting Vitis vinifera varieties to American rootstock, it was discovered that Mourvèdre vines did not take well to the grafting and many vineyards were replanted with other varieties.[6]

Mourvèdre arrived in California in the 1860s as part of the

Cline Cellars Winery promoted demand in the variety and by the mid-2000s, plantings of Mourvèdre in California had risen to 260 ha (650 acres).[2]

In Australia, the variety (known there as Mataro) has had a long history in the country with plantings dating back to the mid-19th century. In the 1980s, many of these old vine plantings were uprooted in a government sponsored

GSM (Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre)[7] blends (many from the surviving, low yield old vine plantings). With a slight increase in planting there were more than 1000 ha of Mataro in Australia by the mid-2000s.[2]

It has been put forward by Ampelographists that Mourvèdre may be the parent to the esteemed grape Mavrud, or that at least Mavrud is a clone of Mourvèdre, imported into Bulgaria by the Romans.

Viticulture

According to

vineyard soil types, the most ideal sites are very warm, south facing (Northern hemisphere) slopes with shallow, clay soils that can retain the necessary moisture to keep the vines "feet" wet without letting it grow its foliage too vigorously.[4] In addition to a warm climate, Mourvèdre also does best in a dry climate with sufficient wind to protect it from the viticultural hazards of powdery mildew and downy mildew.[2]

Mourvèdre leaf.

The grape clusters of Mourvèdre are relatively compact, enhancing its susceptibility to mildew, with small thick-skinned berries that are high in both

vine training systems.[4]

The

desiccating and developing "prune-y" flavors.[4] One advantage of the thick skins is that Mourvèdre can withstand late harvest rains without the berries swelling and bursting like thinner skin varieties such as Grenache. In regions such as the Paso Robles AVA of California, it is often one of the last varieties to be harvested sometimes hanging onto the vine until early November.[6]

Mourvèdre produces medium-size, compact bunches that are usually conical in shape with a small wing cluster that may be discarded during

clones and better rootstock have been developed that have allowed Mourvèdre vines to be grafted more easily. Today many plantings of Mourvèdre are to 110R and 41B rootstocks.[8]

Wine regions

A rosé Bandol wine from Provence made mostly from Mourvèdre.

Spain

In Spain, Mourvèdre is called Monastrell and was the fourth most widely planted red wine grape variety with 43,049 hectares (106,380 acres) in 2015. Like many other Spanish varieties, its numbers have been declining in recent years (in 1996 there was over 100,000 ha/250,000 of the vine planted in Spain

international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. However, the variety still has a strong hold in eastern Spain where it is widely planted in several Spanish wine regions around Murcia and the Valencian Community. Under Spanish wine law, Monastrell is one of the primary red wine grape varieties in the DOPs of Jumilla, Yecla, Valencia, Almansa, and Alicante.[2]

Other Spanish DOPs where Monastrell is a permitted variety include

Penedès and Ribera del Guadiana. Monastrell is also permitted in the sparkling wine Cava though it is rarely used.[10]

France

In France, Mourvèdre doesn't grow much farther north than the

Languedoc-Roussillon region where the grape variety has seen growing popularity as both a varietal wine and as a blending component. After the phylloxera epidemic of the late 19th century and with declining interest in the variety for most of the 20th century, there were less than 900 ha in 1968, mostly in the southern Rhône and the Bandol AOC of Provence. But the spark of interest and international investment in the Languedoc saw planting sharply increase and by 2000 there were over 7,600 ha of Mourvèdre planted throughout Southern France.[2]

A Mourvèdre from the Horse Heaven Hills AVA in Washington State.

While Bandol is the AOC region that most prominently features Mourvèdre (by law all red Bandols must contain at least 50% Mourvèdre), other

Vacqueyras.[11] In Châteauneuf-du-Pape it is one of the 18 permitted varieties in the red wine but is often a secondary component behind Grenache and Syrah. The exceptions are notable blends from producers such as Château de Beaucastel which often has Mourvèdre account for more than a third of the blend.[6] As of 2009, Mourvèdre accounted for 6.6% (213 ha) of all Châteauneuf-du-Pape plantings.[8]

New World

In the United States, Mourvèdre is found primarily in California and Washington State with some limited plantings in Arizona, Missouri,

body structure with cherry fruit flavors as well smokey, spicy and gamy notes.[12]

Mourvèdre/Mataro was first planted in Washington State at Red Willow Vineyard in the Yakima Valley.

In California, Mourvèdre reached the United States in the 1860s as part of the Pellier collection

field blends that was used primarily for bulk produced jug wines. From the middle of the 20th century, it saw its plantings rapidly decline from more than 2700 acres in 1968 to less than a third of that by the 2000s.[13] Its numbers would have declined more drastically had the variety not captured the interest of Rhone Rangers in the 1980s and 90s, who began seeking out old-vine plantings of the variety in vineyards Contra Costa County. On the heels of some critically acclaimed varietal and Rhone-style blends (as well as the introduction of better quality clones) featuring Mourvèdre, plantings in California rose slightly from 260 ha (650 acres) at the turn of the 21st century to 900 acres in 2010.[2][13]

There are around 12 square kilometres of Mourvèdre in Australia, where it is also known as Mataro, though more producers have begun adopting the French name Mourvèdre. While the grape has a long history of being used for generic cask wines and fortified wine, it has recently become more popular in highly acclaimed

Silesia Province in Prussia. From there it was spread by English immigrants to the McLaren Vale region south of Adelaide. Some of the oldest continually producing vines of Mourvèdre are in the New South Wales wine region of Riverina or South Australian wine region of Riverland.[15] Turkey Flat
Vineyards in the Barossa Valley was one of the forerunners of producing Mourvèdre as a single varietal wine with its first vintage in 2005.

Other regions

A Spanish Mourvèdre, known there as Monastrell, from the Bullas wine region.

According to Pierre Galet, there are some plantings of Mourvèdre in Azerbaijan under a variety of synonyms that have not all been fully identified.[2] In South Africa, Rhone-style producers have also begun working with the variety.[4]

Winemaking and wine styles

Example of Mourvèdre (left) and a saignée rosé (right) separated from the same fermentation batch after a few days of skin contact

The small, thick-skin berries of Mourvèdre are high in

oxidation and reductive flavors (such as hydrogen sulfide) if care is not taken at the winery.[2] While in Bandol, it is common to ferment Mourvèdre with the stems, the grapes usually go through a crusher/destemmer in New World regions such as a California due to the harsher, green tannins that are more typical of the stems in those regions. While the wine can be stored in oak barrels, it often does not absorb oak flavors as well as other varieties (such as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon) so it is often stored in neutral oak or large format barrels.[6]

In many regions of the world, Mourvèdre is often blended with other varieties such as Grenache and Syrah in the "GSM" blends of Rhône, Australia and the United States. In these blends, Mourvèdre often provides color, fruit and some tannic structure to complement the fruity Grenache and elegant Syrah. In Provence and Rhône it also sometimes blended with

Cinsault and Carignan as part of both red table wines and rosé. In Australia, the variety is sometimes used in fortified port-style wines.[2]

According to wine expert Jancis Robinson, in favorable

blackberries and gamey or meaty flavors.[2] Oz Clarke notes that some examples of Mourvèdre may come across as faulted in their youth with "farmyard-y" and strong herbal flavors. As the wine ages, more earthy tertiary aromas may develop before becoming more leather and gingerbread aroma notes.[4]

In both Old and

fermentation creating two separate wines—a darker, more concentrated red wine and the lighter rosé.[16]

Synonyms and relationship to other grapes

Mourvèdre is the name used in

Spain.[17] In English-speaking wine producing areas, Mourvèdre is most commonly used; it is the official name used by the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.[5] Despite the similarities of its synonyms, Mourvèdre has no relation to the Spanish wine grape Graciano which is also known as Morrastel in France.[9]

At one point, the

Piedmontese wine grape Nebbiolo.[19]

References
  1. ^ "Fairview Range - Fairview". fairview.co.za. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-19-860990-6
  3. ISBN 1-85732-999-6
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-15-100714-4
  5. ^ a b c d e Integrated Viticulture Online s.v. Mourvèdre Archived 2010-06-14 at the Wayback Machine, University of California.
  6. ^ a b c d e Tablas Creek Vineyard "About Mourvèdre:" Grape Variety Guide. Accessed: July 2nd, 2012
  7. ISBN 9780470138847
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 9789081201711
  9. ^
    ISBN 0-19-860098-4
  10. ISBN 1-55297-720-X
  11. ISBN 1-55297-720-X
  12. ISBN 0-520-24869-4
  13. ^
    ISBN 9780520253131
  14. ^ Radden, Rosemary. "Grapes and Wines of the World". The State Library of South Australia, GPO Box 419, Adelaide SA 5001. Retrieved 15 April 2007.
  15. ISBN 0520250311
  16. ISBN 978-0-520-24377-4
  17. ^ E. Maul; R. Eibach (1999). "Vitis International Variety Catalogue". Information and Coordination Centre for Biological Diversity of the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food. Archived from the original on 13 May 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2007.
  18. ISBN 978-1-846-14446-2
  19. ISBN 978-1-846-14446-2
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