Move a what now?
Mourvèdre is one of my favourite varietals and one that deserves more attention. It most likely originates in southern Spain near Valencia, but Mourvèdre is what the French call it. In Spain, it’s usually called Monastrell or Mataró. This varietal requires lots of hot sunshine to fully ripen, so Paso Robles is a great place to grow it. If you want to try a Spanish Monastrell, look out for something from the Jumilla region.
On the gas…
Sculpterra has a limited amount of older vintages of wine stored away. We can’t go pouring such wines on a daily basis, so Paul recently invested in a Coravin system.
The Coravin pressurizes the bottle with argon gas, via a needle that passes through the cork. The purpose of that is to prevent the accelerated ageing that would occur if extra air was in contact with the wine. That way, we can offer tastings and even glasses of wines that we don’t have much of, and the wine remains in top condition in the bottle.
The current vintage of the Mourvèdre is the 2014. Only a year younger than this one, but it’s a good start for trying out the Coravin. In the future, it should enable us to try older wines, and showcase the ones that have aged to perfection.
Tasting notes
88% Mourvèdre / 12% Petite Sirah.
$50 at Sculpterra Winery. Tasted June 2018. Ask in the tasting room about having a taste or a glass of this wine.
This wine has a fairly deep garnet colour, with some purple hues at the edge.
Dark fruit on the nose backed up with herbs and vanilla. Medium intensity. Sweet blackberry and plum, rosemary, cinnamon, sweet vanilla.
Rich blackberry and blackcurrant on the palate, with some sweet spice. Moderate tannin and medium-low acidity. Delicately herbaceous backdrop.
A little heavier than medium bodied, and nicely balanced.
Dry, but the lower acidity gives a perception of sweetness to the fruit. Not unlike blackberry pie, which makes this one a winner for me.
Roughly four cases of this wine left now, and it’s currently on the tasting menu as an optional extra. Come and check it out.
The Coravin system Sculpterra has is available on Amazon here.
Darren