Archaeological evidence indicates that a semi-wild vine existed 5000 years ago in Murcia, Spain, and which is possibly the ancestor of today’s monastrell. Researchers believe that Romans occupying southern Spain at the time, cultivated the grape a little more than 2000 years ago for winemaking .
The village of Sagunto in Murcia is possibly the location of the origin of moruvedre. The town was then called Morvedre.
This dark, heat-loving, low=yielding grape is the third most widely grown red grape in Spain and thrives particularly well in Valencia, Alicate, and Murcia, where the terroir in the most suitable for its characteristics.
Monastrell was transplanted to southern France in the 16th century, and renamed mourvedre. It is better known under its French name than its Spanish counterpart.
Moanstrell does not adapt well to phylloxera-resistant rootstock. When this dreaded disease started to decimate southern France’s vineyards in the 19th century, nurseries tried to graft monastrell on the then available phylloxera-resistant American rootstock, but the results were unsatisfactory.
Later, rootstock breeders were able to create rootstocks onto which mourvedre could be grafted successfully. This saved the variety from being wiped out in France, and also in Spain.
Monastrell’s bunches are medium in size, very compact, with small-berried fruit. The grape ripens late, and must be harvested at high sugar levels to obtain a wine without grassy flavours.
The vine likes lime-rich soils, but adapts to other types over time as is the case in South Australia and California.
In Australia, winemakers blend mourvedre with grenache and syrah and market it simply as GSM.
Mourvedre yields fleshy, warm-in-the-mouth, full-bodied wines, contributing desirable flavour and colour in blends that age well.
Spain has the most acreage, and planted mostly in Yecla, Bullas, Jumilla, Costers del Segre, Montsant, Calatayud, Carinena, Valencia, and Almanca, all on the Mediterranean coast or very close to it.
Mourvedre in France is rarely dominant in any region’s wine, but used in blends mostly with Grenache and other grapes.

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Tags: MATARO, MONASTRELL, MOURVEDRE, SUMOL

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 06:00 and is filed under Food & Wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.