Mourvèdre

Growing and Making Mourvèdre (in California)

Historically, Mourvèdre was primarily planted in Contra Costa County near the confluence of the Sacramento River with San Francisco Bay. Like many varieties of Spanish origin, Mourvèdre is grown upright. Older plantings are head pruned, minimally irrigated, usually spaced 2.5 x 2.5 m/8 by 8 feet, and, when well-managed, produce delicious fruit,  Lodi and Contra Costa old vines being primary examples. Newer vineyards, notably those in the Central Coast’s Paso Robles, are planted in higher densities with cordon training and vertical-shoot-positioned trellises.

Working The Land

Does soil influence the flavor of the final wine?

Traditionalists answer unequivocally “Yes!” Soil is a key element of terroir, the natural environment in which the vines grow, including climate (temperature, rainfall), topography (altitude, drainage, slope, aspect) and sunlight.

A more unorthodox view holds that the influence of soil on what you taste in the glass is a myth. Maynard Amerine and Ann Noble, two famous names at UC Davis, California’s premier wine school and wine research facility, did a study on the topic. Though the study is based on Chardonnay grapes, they concluded that the following holds true for all wine grapes: “no outstanding sensory differences were observed in wines produced from different soil type locations.” The key word is “sensory” (sight, smell, taste). They are not saying that the soil doesn’t affect vine behavior (yield, growth cycle, etc.). 

For a grape with such minimal devoted acreage, Mourvèdre packs in a fair share of plant material. Per UC Davis, FPS 15 clones were selected between 1973 and 1976 from southern France. That said, Mourvèdre FPS 03 and 04, the state’s old vine workhorses, originated with older plant material, Mataró FPS 01, which came to FPS around 1960 from a vineyard in Lodi, California. In the modern era, Mourvèdre FPS 05 (Tablas Creek Vineyard selection A) is one of four Mourvèdre clones donated to the Foundation Plant Services (FPS) public collection in 2010 by Tablas Creek Vineyards in Paso Robles. Mourvèdre FPS 05/05.1, Mourvèdre FPS 06/06.1, 10.1 and 11.1 are reported to be from unique sources in southern France. The original mother plants for these four Mourvèdre selections came to the U.S. thanks to the quarantine program in Geneva, New York, in the 1980s. They entered the disease testing process at FPS in 2010. Mourvèdre FPS 05 successfully completed disease testing for the California Grapevine Registration & Certification Program in 2012 and are increasingly the selections of choice. 

For more information on Mourvèdre clones in California, please see Mourvèdre by UC Davis’ Foundation Plant Services.