Interesting Facts About Grenache....Beware Clone 70I was in Châteauneuf-du-Pape the other day, chatting and tasting with Jean-Paul Versino. He makes a Châteauneuf that is very good and he gets very good scores from Robert Parker. This puts me in the odd position of having a wine that is both easy to sell and desirable to the market. What makes even more uncomfortable is that I like the wine.Anyhow, Versino, who is 44-years-old, was talking about how one of the advantages of his estate was that he had old masale cuttings of Grenache that pre-date the spread of Clone 70. The Clone 70 Grenache was planted all over France in the mid-70s, to replace Grenache vines that had fallen prey to various illnesses. According to Versino, this Clone hits big levels of alchohol and has large yields, but the quality of the fruit is never ripe. No matter how long you wait, no mattter how small you try to make the yields. You're just stuck with big wines with little charm. |
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