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It's been a while since I had a reason for a good viticultural thread, and I got one today from an amazing document that Morgan Twain-Peterson ( @BedrockWineCo) sent me. If you'd like to take a break in your doom-scrolling for some Mourvedre enlightenment, here's your chance. 1/
There is, archived via Google and the University of California, a copy of the 1884 Ampelography by Charles A Wetmore, who was at that time the Chief Executive Viticultural Officer of California's wine's first governing body: the Board of State Viticultural Commissioners. 2/
Inside, Wetmore takes the major grape varieties that had at that point made their way to California and evaluates each for its success and potential in the state. One of the grapes that he was most excited about was Mourvedre, which he notes was the same as Mataro. 3/
He begins: "Although this is not as extensively cultivated now as other varieties for red wine, yet its present popularity demands for it a place next to the Zinfandel; indeed, I believe that for the future it will have a wider range of usefulness." 4/
He continues with (for me) the piece's most interesting assertion: "All the great French authorities agree in placing the Mataro as the finest red wine grape of the southern regions." A good reminder that before phylloxera, Mourvedre was the dominant Rhone grape, not Grenache. 5/
After some comments on its ripening, he says "The apparent defect of this grape is the roughness of the new wine; but this is the defect of most noble varieties. Like the Cabernet-Sauvignon of Bordeaux, it requires age to develop its quality." 6/
He goes on: "The chief merits of Mataro are, viz: The vine bears well and resists early fall rains; the fruit contains an abundance of tannin; the wine is wholesome, easily fermented and contributes its fermenting and keeping qualities to others with which it is combined." 7/
That is an amazingly pithy summation of why so many Rhone (and @RhoneRangers) producers work with Mourvedre, even if it's not a lead grape for them: the tannic structure and resistance to oxidation that Mourvedre brings to a blend even in small quantities. 8/
After quoting some French authorities, he concludes "I believe there are few red wine vineyards in California, whether for dry or sweet wine, wherein the introduction of a proportion of Mataro, varying from ten to seventy-five per cent, will not be a positive gain." Boom. 9/
That this was written in 1884 is significant. It comes just before the twin phylloxera devastations in France and California which forced widespread replanting onto grafted vines. Mourvedre proved to be incompatible with the rootstocks of the period, so was largely lost. 10/
The exceptions were the regions (like Contra Costa here in California, and Bandol on the Mediterranean coast) where the sand content of the soil was high enough to resist phylloxera. It's from Bandol that Jacques Perrin got the Mourvedre clones that won @Beaucastel renown. 11/
But this is a great reminder of what a setback that era was and how many of the planting trends we accept as normal and historical are in fact a reaction to what was fashionable (and possible) in its aftermath. Case in point: the widespread pan-Mediterranean rise of Grenache. 12/
It's also all the more reason to continue our push to bring in and plant the historical grapes of the Rhone. There are lots of reasons that these grapes can have become unfashionable that has nothing to do with the quality of wine they might make here. https://tablascreek.com/news/2019/with_the_grafting_of_muscardin_tablas_creek_celebrates_the_arrival_of_the_complete_collection_of_14_chateauneuf_du_pape_grapes 13/
Finally, it's one more reason to admire and support the work that Morgan and @HistoricVineOrg are doing mapping and DNA-testing California's heritage vineyards to preserve the amazing diversity they contain. Meanwhile, check out the Ampelography: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31175035120347&view=1up&seq=16 14 & END/
