A subject that came up a lot at the Grenache Symposium was oenotourism, or wine tourism. The idea is that tourism creates potential fans and potential ambassadors of your wine. If there’s one thing better than somebody who drinks your wine, it’s somebody who gets all their friends to drink your wine too!
So there are two little clips I want to show.
In one clip, Reva K Singh discusses the possibility of creating a capital for Grenache. By creating a sort of Ground Zero for Grenache, she can motivate her readership in India to travel to that capital with the specific goal of tasting delicious Grenache.
We talked about a lot of different areas that were viable candidates to be the “capital” of Grenache. While I want to say it’s the Roussillon or Catalunya, I understand that we can’t hog all the glory in the Languedoc-Roussillon. It might actually make more sense to favor an idea that the Mediterranean is the “capital” of Grenache. Mediterranean vacations speak to people all over the world as a sort of luxurious vacation spot. That high-profile can benefit the grape more than just saying the name of one city or one specific appellation like Chateauneuf du Pape.
Maybe this is a place for umbrella brands like Sud de France. That name is a lot catchier than Languedoc and it encompasses a lot of the Mediterranean wine producing regions. But then maybe it would alienate our friends in the Priorat and other Grenache producers who don’t consider themselves French.
I wonder if Australians, Americans, South Africa and everybody else producing delicious Grenache far from the Mediterranean would be okay with this idea.
Then Robert Joseph had an interesting bit to say about the lack of well-developed wine tourism in France. And this hits home. We really have a responsibility to set up an infrastructure for tourists who want to come to our country and taste wine. It’s our responsibility! I might translate this into French, because it will do more good in French than in English.
But anyway, Joseph talks about how French wine tourism is lacking and how we can learn a lot by observing Lafitte’s efforts in China. There’s money and power in tourism. It could be a major source of income for winemakers in the near future.
Le Premier Symposium International du Grenache a rassemblé beaucoup d’experts et j’ai eu l’opportunité de capter une des interventions où on a adressé un sujet très important pour le marché Français et pour le Grenache en particulier: la question du niveau d’alcool.
Pour les lecteurs du site qui ne sont pas initiés, le Grenache est un cépage qui peut accumuler beaucoup de sucre et atteindre des niveaux de maturité assez élevés. Et la tendance dans certains pays comme la France et le Royaume Uni encourage les vignerons de faire des vins plus léger en alcool.
Donc il est normal que le sujet sur l”alcool soit adressé au symposium.
On entend un peu de tout. Il y a des méthodes pour extraire l’alcool du vin et il est aussi suggéré qu’on peut simplement vendanger plus tôt. La question de l’importance des phénoliques est soulevé. Tout cela est très intéressant pour le geek du vin.
Ma solution favorite est peut-être de verser un centimètre de moins dans chaque verre de vin pour arriver a un taux d’alcool plus modéré!
On fait beaucoup de manières mais peut-être cette dernière solution toute simple va apaiser le client qui veut éviter de trop boire tout en laissant le vigneron libre de faire le meilleur vin possible, même si son vin comporte un taux d’alcool un peu plus important. Est-ce que cette idée fera trembler le blogosphère autant que la suggestion de Philippe Gimel sur le blog de Miss Glouglou de se mettre à table avec un crachoir à chaque repas?
It was fun to meet Cork’d Content editor Jon Troutman in real life at the Grenache Symposium in the south of France. We’ve had lots of virtual run-ins because Cork’d works with my family’s wines, but it’s always nice to meet IRL. I’m happy to see he’s still talking about some of the great Languedoc and Roussillon wines that were being showcased at the Symposium.
I promise I’ll visit Richard Case at Domaine Pertuisane and show you some of his old vines, all planted on stoney slopes that produce some of the best Maury I’ve ever tasted. Case compares to even the top cuvées from my friend at Calvet-Thunevin, also producing in Maury, and I’m always happy to discover another great estate in the area. The focus on this wine is power, extraction and density. VERY interesting wine.
Here we have one of TWO epic panel of winemakers at the Grenache Symposium held in the Rhone last week. The Q&A can get a little dry at times, but I think some of you will appreciate it. If it gets too technical, feel free to fast forward through the video to see other people talk.
I think the most interesting thing about this footage is that it shows the huge amount of knowledge and detail that went into the Symposium. This was not a fluff-oriented conference. We had a group that truly understands the strengths and challenges facing Grenache grapes around the world. If anything, posting video from the Symposium is making me realize that we need to do a sort of entry-level translation for people who just like wine. More on this to follow.
The people who talk in this video include:
Ray O’Connor, wine writer of the year and my name nemesis, asks “What is the ageability of Grenache as a single varietal and as a blend?”
Randall Grahm, winemaker at Bonny Doon, answers by talking about the hidden power of Grenache
Vincent Avril, of Clos des Papes, gets into some of the details about blended Grenache in Chateauneuf du Pape
Chester Osborn, from d’Arenberg, talks about how Grenache responds to vintages in Australia
Eben Sadie, from Terroir Al Limit Soc. Lda and Sequillo Cellars, talks about making single estate Grenache in Priorat and South Africa and the challenges involved in single varietal Grenache and ripeness
Philippe Cambie, winemaker in Chateauneuf du Pape and around the south of France, talks about the effect of fermenting with stems versus destemming
Hervé Bizeul asks about the proper level of volatile acids in a good grenache and a great grenache
Cambie coyly answers that the good level is the one you have when you finish fermenting, wherever it is.
Tim Atkin asks if there is any place in the world where Grenache should be grown where it is not already grown
Cambie coyly answers “In my garden.”
English | Ryan O'Connell June 17, 2010 | 
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