MOMENTO GRENACHE GRIS

Description

Everyone has had a grenache before, and most have probably had a grenache blanc at some point as well, but how many of you have had a grenache…gris?

Grenache, like the “pinot trio”, also has a pinkish/greyish-skinned mutation. The grape was once fairly popular in the Roussillon all the way in the south of France right next to/in the Pyrenees. It’s finally turning a corner and seeing a few more plantings there, but even now the total hectarage seems to be just over 1,100.

So this one being from South Africa is that much more anomalous. This project, momento, began in 2013 when Marelise Niemann was winemaker at Beaumont Family Wines in the Bot River appellation. Her first vintage with the Momento project was just two barrels of Grenache Noir!

Her fascination with the grape began back when she travelled to the Priorat region of Spain, where old grenache vines are plenty, and the wines have an absolutely captivating quality to them. Ever since, she has been compelled to keep working with the varietal.

The vineyard this comes from is both young in vine age (10yrs), and incredibly old in soil geology (500+ million year old decomposed granite). She allowed the wine a week on its skins to pick up some colour and complexity, and matured it on lots of lees sediment for 10 months in old French oak cooperage.

Her vintage notes on the wine: “A vintage that betrays its red grape parentage, with strawberry, rhubarb, red apple skin and
Turkish delight on the nose. Partial skin maceration results in a beautiful copper colour and brings out notes of ginger, fruit tea and cinnamon. Bright, tangy and fresh on the palate with a complexity that only deepens with time in glass.”