Category Archives: Round-Ups

Mourvèdre Roundup: March 2013

Your monthly roundup of Mourvèdre-related interestingness from the interwebs circa March 2013.

  • Last month’s roundup led off with a jealosy-stoking post about a major Domaine Tempier tasting, so let’s start March’s roundup with @ErinBScala‘s post on a vertical tasting of Hewitson’s Old Garden Mourvèdre, from the first vintage (1998) through the latest barrel sample (2012). If you don’t know, the Old Garden vineyard, in the Barossa Valley, contains the world’s oldest known Mourvèdre vines. In other words, holy ground. My post on the 2005 (her favorite of the tasting) here.
  • March also saw the 16th Annual Rhone Rangers Weekend Celebration of American Rhones in San Francisco. One of these years, I’ll have to make it to this event. One of this year’s seminars, moderated by @jbonne, was Mourvedre, A Rising Star in the World of American Rhones, described thusly:

Mourvedre has taken center stage in many California Rhone strongholds, long since having outgrown its traditional role as a blending grape that brings structure and ageability to wines based Grenache.  To show that Mourvedre is ready for its renaissance, seven Rhone Rangers winemakers will present their candidates for Mourvedre in a leading role: 2012 TERCERO Rosé (presented by Larry Schaffer), 2010 HOLLY’S HILL Petit Patriarche (presented by Josh Bendick), 2010 DAVID GIRARD Mourvedre (presented by Mari Wells), 2010 FOLIN CELLARS Mourvedre (presented by Rob Folin), 2009 KENNETH VOLK Mourvedre (presented by Ken Volk), 2010 VILLA CREEK “Damas Noir” (presented by Cris Cherry), and 2012 TABLAS CREEK “Vin de Paille Sacrerouge” Dessert Wine (presented by Jason Haas).

  • Artisans of Barossa reminded us that the name Mataro still holds sway in Australia. (And reminded me that I’ve got to find a way to get my hands on more varietal Mourvèdre/Mataro from Australia here in the U.S.)
  • In March, I discovered even more nooks and crannies of the wine world where Mourvèdre wine is made, including Tunisia, Greece, and Mexico.
  • A funny exchange on Twitter about the World Sommelier Competition where the winner mistook a Jumilla Monastrell for an Italian Cannonau in the blind tasting portion. Includes this winning tweet:

 

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If you come across any Mourvèdre goodness, let me know and I’ll probably link to it.

Drink Mour Mourvèdre!

Mourvèdre Roundup: February 2013

It’s the first #MourvedreMonday of the month, so here’s a roundup of Mourvèdre-related interestingness from the past month: February, the dwarf month. (I wonder if someday, February will be downgraded from full month status to “dwarf”, like poor ole Pluto.)

It’s intensely-flavoured, velvety wine, with aromas that subliminally hint at 6B pencils, Parade Gloss boot polish, and freshly-polished horse tack.  Its fruits are somewhere between the rooty-fruity fragrance of borscht – cool beetroot soup with yoghurt – and the meaty twang of blueberry.  Its flavours are somewhere between those fleeting notions, inked with the reek of times and tastes past: it’s nostalgic stuff, with soft tannins that remind me of the grainy images in old movies.  It’s never heavy, jammy, or gloopy. It’s the sort of red I can drink in the morning, without food, just for its powerful memory triggers.  I could have it instead of lunch, or with some, in which instance Wah Hing tea-smoked duck comes immediately to mind.  I could have it in the afternoon, with or without Alison Paxton’s exquisite Kangarilla Creamery goat cheese from next door, and then, come to think of it, I could have it with dinner, with dribbly lamb cutlets and mash.  In other words,  I recommend it.  Trust Unca Phil.

  • The Reverse Wine Snob tasted and liked the Tarima 2011 Monastrell, a $5.99 Costco find.
  • The March 31, 2013 Wine Spectator failed to call out a single varietal Mourvèdre in it’s annual California Rhone review. The full listing of 600+ wines with scores is available here. The highest scoring varietal Mourvèdre — if you’re into scores, that is — is the Cypher Mourvèdre Paso Robles El Pelon 2009 (90, $55). They made up for mostly snubbing Mourvèdre by running a Domaine Tempier/Bandol feature in the same issue. (I’ll not link to it because it’s behind a paywall.)
  • Speaking of Bandol, La Vigne reports that 4 hectares of Bandol AOC vineyard land is threatened by construction of a new stadium (unless my French is even weaker than I thought).

We can’t end on that note, so I’ll have to sneak back into the end of January for this…

VINEgeek’s Mourvèdre Round-Up 6.18.12

Here are a few things that have caught my Mourvèdre-adled brain’s attention recently (lots of Mourvèdre action from Down Under recently):

  • Drinkster (aka @whiteswine) has a tour-de-force post on the history of Mourvèdre/Mataro in Australia all the way back to the Phoenicians. Must read.
  • Aussie winemakers are producing more varietal Mourvèdre, according to themercury.com.au: “We’re seeing the emergence from blended obscurity of long-planted varietals like malbec and mourvedre increasingly appearing as straight varietals.” (via @kellsmellswine)
  • The Empty Glass blog has a geek-worthy post comparing the merits of two bottle of d’Arenberg Twenty-Eight Road Mourvèdre 2006 McLaren Vale – one under cork and the other under screwcap (Stelvin closure). Click through to find out the results.
  • The Good Drop blog reviews Yangarra Mourvèdre 2009 McLaren Vale: “The trinity of fruit, ferrous mineral and fine grained tannin make for a wonderful finish.” (Coincidentally, Yangarra happens to be mentioned in the Mercury article above.)
  • Anglim Winery suggest s’mores as a pairing for their 2008 Mourvèdre. I, for one, avoid sweets with anything but dessert wine, but whatever floats your boat. I haven’t had the 2008, but I can highly recommend their 2007.