Sending Wine Home

Last year, I sat at a tasting table with a very accomplished Sommelier in an exquisitely designed restaurant and expressed my love for Mourvèdre grapes while adding that it really rounds things out in the wine.  It gives it so much fullness.

To which, he curtly said ~ “No, it doesn’t.  The exact opposite, actually.”  

Yikes.  That was a blow to my newly informed wine ego.   I just nodded and smiled back at him, letting my heart sink down in my chest quietly without him noticing too much.  I had loved that grape of “GSM” in Rhone, France since I first noticed it. Grenache was spicy red fruit, Syrah was solid with enlightening black pepper, but Mourvèdre was…..fulfilling.  

I could always tell when Mourvèdre was present.  It had become a good friend.  

Interestingly enough, my Spanish Wine Scholar friend had turned me on to studying French wine.  He helped me to see that so many French grapes came from Spain and that each area of France has unique traits to enjoy.   Monastrell, as the Spanish like to call it, was the top grape that maintained a common thread through my favorite selections from the wine shop.  

Six months into my fun study of French wine, I was required to dip my toe into Provence.  I had narrowly avoided much Rosè wine in my studies as I was a red wine girl who was learning the white wine nuances.   But, Rosè?   Hmmmm…..

Just looking at the choices on the shelf, all I could think of was my young 20-year-old self only drinking pink (White Zinfandel from California) because it was a pretty color.  Yes, it’s true.  Another win for marketing majors.  

Now, my mid-life womanhood couldn’t see enjoying a pink wine.  Not enough depth, maturity….

I drank through almost every Provence Rosè available at Total Wine.  Focusing solely on how it made me feel.  By the end of my tasting tests, I had developed an Afib arrhythmia.   I am still curious to this day why the Rosè gave me that warm buzzing feeling in my chest but not reds or whites?   

So, I did the hard work for you.  Luckily, I have since balanced back to healthy moderation and Doctor says all clear for heart/electrical mysteries.  No worries. 

Amidst all the “goes down easy,” refreshing, smooth pink wine drinking on the patio, I forgot to focus on the grapes.  Each Rosè comes from a red grape.  My little mind hadn’t fully wrapped my head around that.  To me, white comes from white grapes, red comes from red grapes so Rosè????   I hadn’t thought it through.  

Until, I was beautifully introduced to Bandol.  This special spot in France was life changing for me and Rosè.  And when I realized I was drinking Mourvèdre.  Voila! My heart was complete.  

There it is.  My old friend.  I knew that fullness.   

You know a grape has significance when you can recognize its presence in a blend.  But when it also stands so well on its own in Elite Bandol, it becomes a star.   

Apparently, “M” didn’t take too well to being grafted on to American vines after Phylloxera, so it wasn’t widely planted post the vine disease trauma of history. And it has some growing stubbornness due to its love of “sun on the face, feet in the water.”  

Similar to me!  Maybe that is why we are soulmates!  

It can have fungal problems if allowed to be too leafy but if the winemaker really knows what they are doing, what an intense, expressive, full, bold, amazing variety.  I wonder now if Virginia should really look into it with our wet, clay soils.  Maybe my home state of Virginia was meant to add Mourvèdre to the repertoire. 

Why that Sommelier said that to me that day, I will never know, but if I have learned anything in wine, it is that each person brings unique perspective to each wine.  The powerful thread that weaves through each bottle is pulled together with the story, the ambiance, the art of creating, and the mood of the moment.  The memorable connections are what keep a wine in the beautiful path of each person’s life.