Grenaches du Monde wins the yellow jersey between Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Perpignan
The two French stages of the decentralised competition in 4 tastings took place on May 14 in Châteauneuf du Pape and on May 17 in Perpignan. This marathon edition will end in Italy, in Ascoli Piceno on June 1st before departing for New York, in 2022!
The tastings, organised in partnership with the AOP Châteauneuf-du-Pape and the Interprofession des Vins du Roussillon, took place as planned on May 14 in the castle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and May 17 in the Palais des Rois de Majorque in Perpignan. Experienced tasters were able to discover the diversity offered by the grape variety and assess the quality of a selection of almost 500 wines from the 850 or so that entered the competition this year. All professions were represented: journalists, sommeliers, buyers, distributors, and oenologists.
A clever process that respects the gestures of protection and the recommendations of social distancing and at the same time brings together four emblematic Grenache terroirs:
- Cebreros in the region of Castilla y León in Spain (May 10)
- Châteauneuf-du-Pape in France (May 14)
- Perpignan, capital of Roussillon in France (May 17)
- Ascoli Piceno, in the Italian province of Marche (June 1)
“We prefer to organise limited tastings to about twenty people over one morning to avoid any health hazards”, explains Fabrice Rieu, President of the competition, "These first three stages of the competition suggest that the 2021 edition will be full of surprises!"
Grenaches du Monde is an annual competition open to all wines made predominantly from Grenache grapes, without restriction of colour, origin or nationality. This travelling event has a clear international vocation, and the ambition to discover the singularities and diversity inherent in the grape variety. Covering 192,455 hectares of vines, grenache ranks seventh among the most planted grape varieties in the world. Emblematic of Mediterranean countries, it ranks third in Europe with 178,628 hectares, or 93% of the world's surface area. France, Spain, and Italy are the top three producing countries, but grenache is very popular all over the world: North and South Africa, Australia, North and South America, Croatia, Greece, Lebanon, etc.
Since 1936, the AOP Châteauneuf-du-Pape has been producing prestigious white and red wines. Power, concentration but also finesse in a privileged environment, where the sun and the wind play a fundamental role in the qualitative expression of the Grenache... and of its blending companions (learn more).
Between the sea and the mountains, the Roussillon is a territory with an extremely varied relief and a sunny and warm climate, favourable to the culture of the grenache. An authentic amphitheatre opening onto the Mediterranean Sea to the east, it is bordered by three massifs: the Corbières to the north, the Pyrenees with Mount Canigou to the west and the Albères to the south. The Roussillon is rich in the diversity of its soils as shown by its 14 AOC and 2 IGP wines (learn more).
About the Grenaches du Monde: Created in 2013 by the Interprofessional Council of Roussillon Wines (CIVR) in Perpignan, the Grenaches du Monde competition becomes itinerant in 2016 with its first edition relocated to Aragon (Campo de Borja), then to Sardinia (2017) and Catalonia (Terra Alta, 2018). The Competition returns to Perpignan in 2019, and the following year it resumes its journey to Montpellier in partnership with Vins de Pays d'Oc, the world's leading producer of rosé grenache wines.
The next edition of the competition will take place in spring 2022, in New York (USA) thanks to the collaboration between the European Union, the Conseil interprofessionnel des vins du Roussillon and the association Garnacha Origen: "After visiting a large number of Grenache growing areas, it is time for us to conquer the world's largest consumer market," concludes Rieu.
