What, No Mourvedre Appreciation Delegation?

I know, bad acronym.

There’s the Carignan Renaissance, ZAP, PS I Love You, and Grenache Symposium.

Aside from the Rhone Rangers, I cannot find a group dedicated to the Mourvedre grape and its wines.

Anyone know of one?

Bandol. [snort.gif]

Drew,

Just buy it and drink it - that’s appreciation enough! :slight_smile:

I’m doing it, glug I’m doing it!

Tonight, actually, is night #1 of the Sixteen 600 Steel Plow Vineyard Grenache (needs a day of slow O2), and backup was the Massena Barossa Mataro 2010.

I make and love Mourvedre. I’ve been a member of both Grenache Symposium and Carignan Renaissance but I’ve hunted for Mourvedre groups in vain. I asked loads of Bandol producers at Vinisud 2 years ago. There isn’t one. A real shame because it’s a variety with lots of terroir expression and one that can make very different and wonderful wines.

The Dirty and Rowdy mailing list?

I make a 100% Mourvedre Rose as well as 2-3 different Mourvèdres each vintage, all from Santa Barbara Court grapes.

In fact, I’ll be leading a seminar on the variety at the upcoming Garagiste Festival in February.

Cheers.

It would be great if you could share that seminar online Larry. For those of us too far away.

Word.
Best, Jim

I love Mourvedre. I don’t drink it often enough. It’s pretty much all Bandol for me. I love how they taste with about 10-15 years on them. Does anyone have any experience with aged New World Mourvedre?

The Ridge Mataro bottling so aged pretty well. Sadly they no longer make them.

I would love more Mourvèdre options.

Interesting, it looks like Ridge used to make a couple of bottlings. Too bad I never got to try those.

I missed out on the Joseph Swan and Castelli Mourvedre wines

I am eventually going to get some of Mr Schaffer’s wines…

Doug,

Ridge still does - still calls theirs Mataro, the Spanish name of the group from a region near Barcelona.

In fact, if you look at the current CA Grape Crush report, the grape in CA US still referred to as Mataro, not Mourvèdre . . .

Cheers.

I think the Ridge wines are only ATP releases.

Great, I’ll keep an eye out for Ridge Mataro. There’s one listed on Winebid right now, but I’m thinking based on Cellartracker notes that it’s over the hill. Plus I swore off buying older wines from them quite a while ago, but I did have really good luck with older domestic wines that weren’t very expensive. If I can find a younger one at some point (or a few), I’ll jump on it.

Jade Mountain Evangelho Vineyard used to make a wonderful old vines Mourved–but they’re out of business since ca 2005 (and the 2005 is starting to decline, tho I’d still recommend it if you can find any). Cline now makes an Old Vine Mourved from some of those vines, and it’s very good, with IMO a long life ahead of it. I think Dirty and Rowdy may as well, but I haven’t had theirs.

I suppose it is quite surprising, because the grape has really good examples in many regions. I recall my 1st experience was the old rhone shaped bottle Penfolds Bin2 Shiraz / Mourvedre. A wonderful wine at a giveaway price. With the change to a standard bdx bottle and a doubling in price, also came a drop off in quality. Not a wine I’d recommend now, but in it’s day one of the great bargains.

FWIW I’ve currently also just got some Bandols plus a single bottle of 2011 Treloar Motus and a 2009 magnum of the same wine. I like Mourvedre/Mataro with age on it, but would be interested in your views on where they’re at in their development Jon.

regards
Ian

Doug - as far as “new world” versions, I think you might be referring to style more than location. There’s a lot made in Spain - more than anywhere else, and Spain is pretty old world but there are different styles. The traditional style tended to be bretty and stinky and I know a lot of people will pine for those wines, whether or not they’ve even had them. But the winemakers realized that the funk isn’t necessarily a characteristic of the grape so much as the wine making.

I’ve had plenty of the Ridge Mataro with ten years and more on, as well as the bottlings from Jade, from Larry at Tercero, and elsewhere. In the Valencia region of Spain there are some pretty remarkable versions being made - Rafael Cambra for example, has almost led a renaissance. His versions tend to be fresher and when made in a clean style, Monastrell is the only grape I know of that has hints of blueberry. Chris Ringland pushes that to the limit with the Nido and Clio wines - those can be almost like blueberry syrup. But if you dial it back a bit, like Cambra does, you don’t get the sweetness but you get the freshness and there’s some underlying earthiness as well. Those are pretty good and at least at ten years in, they seem to develop really well. I’m interested in tasting them at 20 years. Ditto some of the Bandol producers.

And from Sonoma, don’t forget Cline. They’ve done it for years.