WSET3 Grenache/Garnacha

Hello everybody and welcome to another grape variety section with me Jimmy Smith and this one we're looking at grape varieties. Now we do have another section which says key grape varieties. These are the major grape varieties across the world. Now we're into the section which are a little bit less important but nonetheless still we need to know about these. So this one is the advanced version of Grenache and Garnacha. We also have an intermediate version as well. well of this which is more for level two this one is more for level three and level four so um looking at ganache and grenache um as ever if you have any comments and questions here are our social media handles so we have at wine with jimmy which is my one i am the owner and founder of the three below so west london wine school south london wine school and a wine bar called stretton wine house our schools are some of the leading wine education facilities in the United Kingdom with the WSET award and the Wine Scholar Guild award under our belt. So we do lots of wine education and of course over 6,000 students per year and our bar is a great place to visit. Come and see us whenever you're in London. All of our websites are just below it. So let's move on. As I mentioned this is for WSET level three and level four. quite a bit more information than you probably need to know for level three still it is very useful so the great variety ganache grenache as it says at the top a bit of history now this could actually be written as ganache slash cannon now slash grenache because in fact you could argue that the italian influence on this is more important than the fridge and let's get into that so it clearly states there The oranges are really not that well defined, so we don't know exactly to this day where we have Garnacha from, as we do with many other varieties. So we have some theories and there are two very strong theories that we'll look at the most. Where in the world exactly are we looking at? Well, we are looking at mainly around the Western Mediterranean, the great variety. is really one that unites the populations of that area. It is a great variety which is wonderful in the warmth and the heat of this area. So we're talking about eastern Spain, we're talking about southern France and we're talking about western Italy and all of the islands we find in that middle of the Mediterranean Sea as well. Its origin is likely, so there's the two big hypotheses that it's Spanish and that it is Italian, Sardinian. So first of all, the Spanish one. So this is the Aragon. This is area in the north of Spain. So this is next to Navarra and Catalonia in the shadow of the Pyrenees. All in this area, so Navarra, Aragon and Catalonia, there is very large genetic diversity within the great variety. So this genetic diversity plus its mutative diversity means that we think it is likely to come from here as well. the most. So the genetic diversity is the fact there are many other names of Garnacha in this landscape and then the mutative one is that you have Grenache Blanca, you have Grenache Gris as well, you have lots of different mutations of the variety. So therefore it is most diverse in this area in the world, hence why we point it as being the likely origin. And this information is supplied to us from Jancis Robinson's Wine Grapes book. Atilio Chianza, who is a very important wine scientist in Italy, for Vinitaly, has actually proposed a hypothesis that the variety is in fact from the Italian island of Sardinia, as it's known as Cannanau. And that's probably quite likely that it's from here or connected to Spain, maybe shortly after the Spanish production of it. because of the Spanish ruling of Sardinia for many years with the house of Bourbon etc. So therefore we have a strong claim here, we're not exactly sure but what we do know is that certainly as cannonel it is an important variety to Sardinia, so Sardinia certainly stakes a claim. The names of it then, the alternative grapes name that we find for this, I've listed just a few here but there are many. In Spain, of course, it is called Garnacha. You can also see it written as Alicante in certain other areas. In France, of course, it's called Grenache Noire. In Sardinia, as previously mentioned, it is Cananao. And then around Venice, because of the Venetian Republic bringing it into this area, it's called Tocayroso. So just a few names of it, which are great synonyms for the Garnacha variety. So what is it like in the vineyard? The grapevine is a very interesting one. Garnacha is a bush vine, a freestanding bush vine without trellising is the most common way to find it. That is because it's a very it has a very upright habit and very prominent shoots, which means it doesn't need support. The bush vine will be quite low to the ground, but the shoots will come out very vertically. This in Spain is called anvaso and in Italy is called albarello. And albarello means little tree. So these end up looking like little trees after time in the vineyard after they get older. So you'll see these often commonly spaced out in the vineyard. So they have good root surface area to collect the little rainfall that they can. But it is the classic look of the vines. It's fairly early budding and then quite late ripening, meaning it has a long season in between. This long season means that you, in fact, need a lot of warmth and heat throughout that whole season. So that's why it is only found normally in areas which are Mediterranean defined with those lovely long summer and autumn seasons. It also has evolved to be exceedingly drought tolerant. So it's also quite wind tolerant as well, which means in areas you find it, such as southern France, it's perfect. Because if you look at it down there and the rainfall is very low and huge, powerful wind that comes through here, which is called the Mistral wind. And that commonly affects this area. But Grenache has evolved against that. So it actually has good flowering and it holds its flowers when the winds can pick up. So. it's a rather hardy vine and going into more modern days of course with climate change becoming quite a significant issue this is going to be a great variety of remarkable importance going into the future. The actual ampelography of the grape and the look of the vine is very interesting the leaves are very very well formed very whole quite round and on the top they have a very shiny layer to them this is quite useful in very very sunny areas it can actually reflect some of the light meaning that you can actually it can protect itself against the intensively hot conditions you can get here on the underside of the leaf you'll actually find that it's not hairy where many vines are so this is quite an interesting trait of it there is a different version of Garnacha which is called Garnacha Perluda in Spain or Le Lantana Perlou in France which is in fact hairy. So there is actually a variant of it which is hairy but most Grenache Noire or Garnacha Tinta is not. And the mutations we've already mentioned because it's likely that a lot of these mutations from Spain and around the Pyrenees that's where we think it's from there, so you have things like Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc or Garnacha Blanca. So there are other mutations of this which will stem it from the continental area. It's quite productive as well. So often it's found in less fertile soils as better. Sand is often quite a common soil to find it in. But the grape ripens well with huge amounts of sugar, which, of course, will convert into very high alcohols potentially. So it does ripen very sweet berries with a lot of sugar. In the winery, as Grenache comes in, Grenache is generally quite a thin skin variety. There are some areas where it's a bit thicker and smaller berries, but normally quite healthily big berries with thin skin. So smaller levels of anthocyanin colour, smaller levels of tannin. That's the phenolic. So therefore, with less colour and less tannin, you'll find that the variety, when it's made into a wine, can oxidise rather quickly. That is, change its colour towards brown. and oxidise its aromas and flavours. So for this fact, it is commonly blended with other varieties to counter that and to add a balance or a consistency. And this is things like Syrah and Morvedre in France. Of course, that's a famous blend. You will learn about this in your studies. G, S, M, Grenache, Syrah, Morvedre. And then in Spain... Carreñena is a variety blended with Garnacha, famously in Catalunya in Priorat, where it makes some of the most complex and powerful wines of the Iberian Peninsula. So it's actually one of its most famous powerful expressions of Garnacha because of its blending with Carreñena. You may find some wines around the world being made under the semi-carbonic maceration method, that is without yeast, with more of your carbon dioxide to macerate the grapes, partially maceration, partially yeast. And this makes a very friendly, fruity floral style with a lot of these kind of ethyl cinnamate characteristics, strawberry. and there's very sweet, hard candy, spicy elements to it. But very easily drinkable, low tannins, lighter colour, with some good acidities behind it. And this is the Beaujolais method, but you'll find it with many simple wines that are made in Mediterranean zones and continental zones. Things like Valpolicellas, Riochas, Cote d'Orone will be under this process. So Grenache is no exception, certainly in areas like Cote d'Orone and areas like Riocha, for instance. so it can make very easy drinking reds. But normally it will be made with good skin contact or blended and making a variety of kind of traditionally made reds anywhere from kind of medium body to full body is the usual sort of way for Garnacha. Production of course because of its general gentle character plus red fruits it's often quite well suited therefore to rosé production. So in areas in the south of France, Provence specifically, and Tavel, an AOC only designated for rosé production in southern Rome, it makes rosés. So you'll find with the Tavel quite gastronomical rich styles and Provence normally quite light and herbal styles with that kind of saliney briny characteristic because of its proximity to the med. Variety of methods used for this from direct press, pre-fermentation. and then also Sanjane, so bleeding off during fermentation to gain some more darker colours. It's also produced for semi-sweet rosés as well, so you'll find it as white Grenache in California, kind of sister to the white Zinfandel really, these are semi-sweet rosés of larger production from the Central Valley in California. So it's productions. We haven't got any maps on this one because it's mainly the Mediterranean we're looking at and then a bit of California and Australia. But France is the biggest nation, so not its origin. Remember, Spain and Sardinia are the combatants for the origin. But France is definitely the biggest sort of believer in this variety. So in the southern Rhone, that is areas like Cote d'Or, Cote d'Or village, and then all the villages with village name attached to it. Plus... Vaccaras, Gigandas, Baume de Venise, Châteauneuf-de-Pape, places in the Languedoc, many places along the Languedoc, Minevoir, Fittu, Corbières, Languedoc AOC and Provence of course as well it's very famous in, making in any of these areas from quite light and fruity all the way to quite complex, it is often quite dependent on what it's been blended with like Syrah, Movetra, Sanso, Carignan. etc. Spain has a 75,000 hectares but diminishing. A lot of this is found in the north so you'll find areas around Rioja, Navarra, Aragon, so the Ebro Valley zones, Catalonia, Valencia a little bit but quite an interesting amount around Madrid. So around the Sierra de Gredos, the mountain ranges around Madrid zone are quite good for it. So some interesting varieties. Generally in Spain they tend to be quite full, quite spicy, quite heady. There are some varietals, there are more varietals really in Spain than there are in France but its best expression I mentioned is Catalonia in Priorat or Monsant where we find it blended with Caranena. Italy and most of this is in fact Sardinia, you will find some around the Tuscan coast, a little bit in Liguria as well but most of this is Sardinia as Caranela. making Cannonao da Sardinia which is normally quite full and in fact normally darker a bit more licoricey a bit more heady but they're very much passionate about their styles in Sardinia of Cannonao. California a lot of it is south of San Francisco sort of areas like Paso Robles San Luis Obispo those areas you find some interesting amounts being blended with the group called the Rome Rangers and Australia around McLaren Vale. around Barossa, South Australia is its famous zone for it, where you'll find GSM mimic styles which of course will mimic the Chateauneuf-du-Pape made styles. A lot of the Grenache art in Australia is very old as well, so it makes quite complex stuff. So what does it taste like? And I apologise on the last slide it said Primitivo Zinfandel, that was a slight typo at the top, it is Grenache and Garnacha. What does it taste like? So this variety is exceedingly red fruit dominant, strawberries, raspberries and cherries, laden with those and because it has quite high sugar and ripens quite well, these characteristics can often be liqueur based. So think of things like Kirsch, or Chambord, so that is cherry liqueur or raspberry liqueur respectively, or jammy characteristics of those as well. You'll often find spices like white pepper in the middle there, licorice, and in places like France specifically and in Catalonia you'll find herbaceous notes but more of these what we call garigue, so lavender, thyme and rosemary, which are quite a classic landscape of those areas. With some of the more serious expressions in Priorat and in Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas, you will find that oak will be used as a fermentation vessel and maturation vessel. So you may find them being fairly flavoursome with those characters, cedar and smoke and so on. The tannin levels of ash based wines will tend to be low to medium. But when they're blended with other varieties, they can, of course, be quite high depending on the other variety. Acids will generally be low to medium as well. Colours can be quite pale if they are more Grenache-led because of its thin skins, and the alcohols will tend to be quite high. Most Grenache will come into the winery with a potential alcohol of about 16%, which means it's actually very much needed to be blended. It is really only high altitude sites which have cooler conditions and a slower season, which generally means that the alcohols will tend to be kept in check just a little bit. But we're still talking. 14.5% to 15% alcohol. So that's it for our advanced look at Garnacha, Grenache or Cannonel. If you have any comments or questions, please get in touch with me at Wine with Jimmy and all of our other details there for the wine schools at West London Wine, South London Wine and our bar, Streatham Winehouse. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. I hope you've learned something. Please look out for all our other... educational videos on varieties, key varieties and other varieties, plus things like geology sessions, winemaking sessions and so on. That's all on the YouTube channel at Wine with Jimmy. Thank you so much for your time. Please stay safe and see you soon. Goodbye.

Now we're into the section which are a little bit less important but nonetheless still we need to know about these. So this one is the advanced version of Grenache and Garnacha. We also have an intermediate version as well.

well of this which is more for level two this one is more for level three and level four so um looking at ganache and grenache um as ever if you have any comments and questions here are our social media handles so we have at wine with jimmy which is my one i am the owner and founder of the three below so west london wine school south london wine school and a wine bar called stretton wine house our schools are some of the leading wine education facilities in the United Kingdom with the WSET award and the Wine Scholar Guild award under our belt. So we do lots of wine education and of course over 6,000 students per year and our bar is a great place to visit. Come and see us whenever you're in London. All of our websites are just below it.

So let's move on. As I mentioned this is for WSET level three and level four. quite a bit more information than you probably need to know for level three still it is very useful so the great variety ganache grenache as it says at the top a bit of history now this could actually be written as ganache slash cannon now slash grenache because in fact you could argue that the italian influence on this is more important than the fridge and let's get into that so it clearly states there The oranges are really not that well defined, so we don't know exactly to this day where we have Garnacha from, as we do with many other varieties. So we have some theories and there are two very strong theories that we'll look at the most. Where in the world exactly are we looking at?

Well, we are looking at mainly around the Western Mediterranean, the great variety. is really one that unites the populations of that area. It is a great variety which is wonderful in the warmth and the heat of this area. So we're talking about eastern Spain, we're talking about southern France and we're talking about western Italy and all of the islands we find in that middle of the Mediterranean Sea as well. Its origin is likely, so there's the two big hypotheses that it's Spanish and that it is Italian, Sardinian.

So first of all, the Spanish one. So this is the Aragon. This is area in the north of Spain.

So this is next to Navarra and Catalonia in the shadow of the Pyrenees. All in this area, so Navarra, Aragon and Catalonia, there is very large genetic diversity within the great variety. So this genetic diversity plus its mutative diversity means that we think it is likely to come from here as well.

the most. So the genetic diversity is the fact there are many other names of Garnacha in this landscape and then the mutative one is that you have Grenache Blanca, you have Grenache Gris as well, you have lots of different mutations of the variety. So therefore it is most diverse in this area in the world, hence why we point it as being the likely origin.

And this information is supplied to us from Jancis Robinson's Wine Grapes book. Atilio Chianza, who is a very important wine scientist in Italy, for Vinitaly, has actually proposed a hypothesis that the variety is in fact from the Italian island of Sardinia, as it's known as Cannanau. And that's probably quite likely that it's from here or connected to Spain, maybe shortly after the Spanish production of it.

because of the Spanish ruling of Sardinia for many years with the house of Bourbon etc. So therefore we have a strong claim here, we're not exactly sure but what we do know is that certainly as cannonel it is an important variety to Sardinia, so Sardinia certainly stakes a claim. The names of it then, the alternative grapes name that we find for this, I've listed just a few here but there are many.

In Spain, of course, it is called Garnacha. You can also see it written as Alicante in certain other areas. In France, of course, it's called Grenache Noire. In Sardinia, as previously mentioned, it is Cananao. And then around Venice, because of the Venetian Republic bringing it into this area, it's called Tocayroso.

So just a few names of it, which are great synonyms for the Garnacha variety. So what is it like in the vineyard? The grapevine is a very interesting one. Garnacha is a bush vine, a freestanding bush vine without trellising is the most common way to find it. That is because it's a very it has a very upright habit and very prominent shoots, which means it doesn't need support.

The bush vine will be quite low to the ground, but the shoots will come out very vertically. This in Spain is called anvaso and in Italy is called albarello. And albarello means little tree.

So these end up looking like little trees after time in the vineyard after they get older. So you'll see these often commonly spaced out in the vineyard. So they have good root surface area to collect the little rainfall that they can. But it is the classic look of the vines.

It's fairly early budding and then quite late ripening, meaning it has a long season in between. This long season means that you, in fact, need a lot of warmth and heat throughout that whole season. So that's why it is only found normally in areas which are Mediterranean defined with those lovely long summer and autumn seasons. It also has evolved to be exceedingly drought tolerant. So it's also quite wind tolerant as well, which means in areas you find it, such as southern France, it's perfect.

Because if you look at it down there and the rainfall is very low and huge, powerful wind that comes through here, which is called the Mistral wind. And that commonly affects this area. But Grenache has evolved against that.

So it actually has good flowering and it holds its flowers when the winds can pick up. So. it's a rather hardy vine and going into more modern days of course with climate change becoming quite a significant issue this is going to be a great variety of remarkable importance going into the future.

The actual ampelography of the grape and the look of the vine is very interesting the leaves are very very well formed very whole quite round and on the top they have a very shiny layer to them this is quite useful in very very sunny areas it can actually reflect some of the light meaning that you can actually it can protect itself against the intensively hot conditions you can get here on the underside of the leaf you'll actually find that it's not hairy where many vines are so this is quite an interesting trait of it there is a different version of Garnacha which is called Garnacha Perluda in Spain or Le Lantana Perlou in France which is in fact hairy. So there is actually a variant of it which is hairy but most Grenache Noire or Garnacha Tinta is not. And the mutations we've already mentioned because it's likely that a lot of these mutations from Spain and around the Pyrenees that's where we think it's from there, so you have things like Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc or Garnacha Blanca.

So there are other mutations of this which will stem it from the continental area. It's quite productive as well. So often it's found in less fertile soils as better. Sand is often quite a common soil to find it in. But the grape ripens well with huge amounts of sugar, which, of course, will convert into very high alcohols potentially.

So it does ripen very sweet berries with a lot of sugar. In the winery, as Grenache comes in, Grenache is generally quite a thin skin variety. There are some areas where it's a bit thicker and smaller berries, but normally quite healthily big berries with thin skin. So smaller levels of anthocyanin colour, smaller levels of tannin. That's the phenolic.

So therefore, with less colour and less tannin, you'll find that the variety, when it's made into a wine, can oxidise rather quickly. That is, change its colour towards brown. and oxidise its aromas and flavours. So for this fact, it is commonly blended with other varieties to counter that and to add a balance or a consistency. And this is things like Syrah and Morvedre in France.

Of course, that's a famous blend. You will learn about this in your studies. G, S, M, Grenache, Syrah, Morvedre.

And then in Spain... Carreñena is a variety blended with Garnacha, famously in Catalunya in Priorat, where it makes some of the most complex and powerful wines of the Iberian Peninsula. So it's actually one of its most famous powerful expressions of Garnacha because of its blending with Carreñena.

You may find some wines around the world being made under the semi-carbonic maceration method, that is without yeast, with more of your carbon dioxide to macerate the grapes, partially maceration, partially yeast. And this makes a very friendly, fruity floral style with a lot of these kind of ethyl cinnamate characteristics, strawberry. and there's very sweet, hard candy, spicy elements to it.

But very easily drinkable, low tannins, lighter colour, with some good acidities behind it. And this is the Beaujolais method, but you'll find it with many simple wines that are made in Mediterranean zones and continental zones. Things like Valpolicellas, Riochas, Cote d'Orone will be under this process. So Grenache is no exception, certainly in areas like Cote d'Orone and areas like Riocha, for instance.

so it can make very easy drinking reds. But normally it will be made with good skin contact or blended and making a variety of kind of traditionally made reds anywhere from kind of medium body to full body is the usual sort of way for Garnacha. Production of course because of its general gentle character plus red fruits it's often quite well suited therefore to rosé production.

So in areas in the south of France, Provence specifically, and Tavel, an AOC only designated for rosé production in southern Rome, it makes rosés. So you'll find with the Tavel quite gastronomical rich styles and Provence normally quite light and herbal styles with that kind of saliney briny characteristic because of its proximity to the med. Variety of methods used for this from direct press, pre-fermentation. and then also Sanjane, so bleeding off during fermentation to gain some more darker colours. It's also produced for semi-sweet rosés as well, so you'll find it as white Grenache in California, kind of sister to the white Zinfandel really, these are semi-sweet rosés of larger production from the Central Valley in California.

So it's productions. We haven't got any maps on this one because it's mainly the Mediterranean we're looking at and then a bit of California and Australia. But France is the biggest nation, so not its origin.

Remember, Spain and Sardinia are the combatants for the origin. But France is definitely the biggest sort of believer in this variety. So in the southern Rhone, that is areas like Cote d'Or, Cote d'Or village, and then all the villages with village name attached to it. Plus... Vaccaras, Gigandas, Baume de Venise, Châteauneuf-de-Pape, places in the Languedoc, many places along the Languedoc, Minevoir, Fittu, Corbières, Languedoc AOC and Provence of course as well it's very famous in, making in any of these areas from quite light and fruity all the way to quite complex, it is often quite dependent on what it's been blended with like Syrah, Movetra, Sanso, Carignan.

etc. Spain has a 75,000 hectares but diminishing. A lot of this is found in the north so you'll find areas around Rioja, Navarra, Aragon, so the Ebro Valley zones, Catalonia, Valencia a little bit but quite an interesting amount around Madrid. So around the Sierra de Gredos, the mountain ranges around Madrid zone are quite good for it.

So some interesting varieties. Generally in Spain they tend to be quite full, quite spicy, quite heady. There are some varietals, there are more varietals really in Spain than there are in France but its best expression I mentioned is Catalonia in Priorat or Monsant where we find it blended with Caranena. Italy and most of this is in fact Sardinia, you will find some around the Tuscan coast, a little bit in Liguria as well but most of this is Sardinia as Caranela.

making Cannonao da Sardinia which is normally quite full and in fact normally darker a bit more licoricey a bit more heady but they're very much passionate about their styles in Sardinia of Cannonao. California a lot of it is south of San Francisco sort of areas like Paso Robles San Luis Obispo those areas you find some interesting amounts being blended with the group called the Rome Rangers and Australia around McLaren Vale. around Barossa, South Australia is its famous zone for it, where you'll find GSM mimic styles which of course will mimic the Chateauneuf-du-Pape made styles.

A lot of the Grenache art in Australia is very old as well, so it makes quite complex stuff. So what does it taste like? And I apologise on the last slide it said Primitivo Zinfandel, that was a slight typo at the top, it is Grenache and Garnacha. What does it taste like? So this variety is exceedingly red fruit dominant, strawberries, raspberries and cherries, laden with those and because it has quite high sugar and ripens quite well, these characteristics can often be liqueur based.

So think of things like Kirsch, or Chambord, so that is cherry liqueur or raspberry liqueur respectively, or jammy characteristics of those as well. You'll often find spices like white pepper in the middle there, licorice, and in places like France specifically and in Catalonia you'll find herbaceous notes but more of these what we call garigue, so lavender, thyme and rosemary, which are quite a classic landscape of those areas. With some of the more serious expressions in Priorat and in Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas, you will find that oak will be used as a fermentation vessel and maturation vessel.

So you may find them being fairly flavoursome with those characters, cedar and smoke and so on. The tannin levels of ash based wines will tend to be low to medium. But when they're blended with other varieties, they can, of course, be quite high depending on the other variety. Acids will generally be low to medium as well. Colours can be quite pale if they are more Grenache-led because of its thin skins, and the alcohols will tend to be quite high.

Most Grenache will come into the winery with a potential alcohol of about 16%, which means it's actually very much needed to be blended. It is really only high altitude sites which have cooler conditions and a slower season, which generally means that the alcohols will tend to be kept in check just a little bit. But we're still talking. 14.5% to 15% alcohol.

So that's it for our advanced look at Garnacha, Grenache or Cannonel. If you have any comments or questions, please get in touch with me at Wine with Jimmy and all of our other details there for the wine schools at West London Wine, South London Wine and our bar, Streatham Winehouse. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

I hope you've learned something. Please look out for all our other... educational videos on varieties, key varieties and other varieties, plus things like geology sessions, winemaking sessions and so on. That's all on the YouTube channel at Wine with Jimmy. Thank you so much for your time.

Please stay safe and see you soon. Goodbye.

Transcript for:WSET3 Grenache/Garnacha

Transcript for:
WSET3 Grenache/Garnacha