Grenache, Garnacha, Garnatxa

How ever you spell or say it, that is what we had for our Thursday night tasting this last week. Grenache is a late ripening variety and one of the most planted red wines in the world. It likes hot climates like our central valley in addition to Spain and southern France. Grenache is the primary variety in the southern Rhone and Chateneuf-du-Pape. In many areas of the world it is often used for blending. Grenache has light tannins and often low acidity with spicy, berry flavors. One thing I usually associate with Grenache is red roses on the nose.

We had six wines, two each from California and Spain along with one from France and one from Australia. Our group tasted them blind as usual, although most of us aren’t familiar enough with Grenache to have been influenced by the labels.

2005 Fire Block Old Vine Grenache – From the Clare valley in Australia this wine had a light garnet color. The nose was unusual, slightly medicinal with a hint of smoke. There was tart red fruit and leather flavor. The body was light with moderate tannins and a medium length finish. This was the second favorite wine of the group.

2009 Dashe Les Enfants Terribles – The Dashe is from the Dry Creek Valley here in California. The color was light ruby with a blackberries and raspberries nose. There was some kind of vegetal and bitter component along with some fruit in the flavor, very different from the nose. Tannins were moderate, nobody really cared for this wine.

2009 garnacha de Fuego Old Vines – Imported from Spain by Jorge Ordonez there was a dark ruby color with a nose of dark and tropical fruit. There was a fair amount of fruit in the mouth with some complexity to it. Although there was one comment it tasted like cough syrup. Smooth moderate tannins and a medium finish.

2008 Tres Picos Borsao Garnacha – We tasted this wine once before back in November 2010. With a dark ruby color there was a medicinal smell on the nose. Very ripe cherry vanilla cough syrup flavor. Surprisingly robust tannins and acid with a medium length finish. When we re-tasted it later the cough syrup flavor had gone away leaving red fruit.

2009 Domaine De Gournier Grenache Noir – This medium ruby colored wine had a floral and lily stem nose. Nicely balanced tannins, acid and flavor of red cherry fruit. A light bodied wine with a medium length finish. This was voted the favorite wine of the group.

2008 Hug Cellars El Pape – The name an obvious play on Chateneuf-du-Pape from this Paso Robles wine. There was a medium garnet color and the nose initially had an acetic acid component that blew off. There were ripe tart cherries in the mouth. The body was very light with mild tannins and a little heat on the finish.

Well we had a nice selection of Grenache although none of them had red roses in the nose like I have found in the past. Most were decent wines but none stood out as something special, however.