In addition to a warm climate, Mourvèdre also does best in a dry climate with sufficient wind to protect it from the viticultural hazards of powdery mildew and downy mildew.

There are around 12 square kilometres of Mourvèdre in Australia, where it is also known as Mataro though more producers have begun adopting the French name Mourvèdre.

Despite the similarities of its synonyms, Mourvèdre has no relation to the Spanish wine grape Graciano which is also known as Morrastel in France.

The red wine, which is the best known is made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, Carignan, Grenache, and Mourvèdre grapes in varying amounts each year.

In Spain, Mourvèdre ( where the grape is known as Monastrell ) was the fourth most widely planted red wine grape variety at the turn of the 21st century with around 63, 000 hectares ( 155, 000 acres ) in 2004.

The French-adapted name Mourvèdre likely came from Murviedro ( Morvedre in Catalan, nowadays Sagunt ) near Valencia while the Spanish name Mataró likely came from Mataró, Cataluña near the modern-day city of Barcelona.

Mourvèdre is the name used in France ; Mataró is used in Portugal and parts of the New World ; and Monastrell is used in Spain.

In the Languedoc, the grape is often blended with Cinsaut, Grenache, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Mourvèdre and Merlot.

In Australia it is typically blended in " GSM " blends with Syrah and Mourvèdre.

Today Grenache is most widely planted in the Languedoc-Roussillon region where it is widely blended with Carignan, Cinsaut, Syrah and Mourvèdre.

In Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Grenache noir is the most common variety of the 13 permitted varieties, although some producers in recent years have been using a higher proportion of Mourvèdre.

Syrah is typically blended to provide color and spice, while Mourvèdre can add elegance and structure to the wine.

In addition to making red varietal wines, Mourvèdre is a prominent component in " GSM " blends where it is blended with Grenache and Syrah.

The style of wine produced from the grapes varies greatly according to where it is produced, but according to wine expert Jancis Robinson Mourvèdre wines often have wild game and / or earthy notes to them, with soft red fruit flavors.

Most wine historians agree that Mourvèdre is likely Spanish in origin though its exact history is difficult to pinpoint.

One advantage of the thick skins is that Mourvèdre can withstand late harvest rains without the berries swelling and bursting like thinner skin varieties such as Grenache.

While Bandol is the AOC region that most prominent features Mourvèdre ( by law all red Bandols must contain at least 50 % Mourvèdre ), other Appellation d ' origine contrôlée ( AOC ) s that has Mourvèdre as a permitted variety include Cassis, Collioure, Corbières, Costières de Nîmes, Coteaux d ' Aix-en-Provence, Coteaux du Languedoc, Coteaux de Pierrevert, Coteaux Varois, Côtes du Luberon, Coteaux du Tricastin, Côtes de Provence, Côtes du Rhône, Côtes du Rhône Villages, Côtes du Roussillon, Côtes du Roussillon Villages, Côtes du Ventoux, Faugères, Fitou, Palette, Saint-Chinian, Gigondas, Lirac, Minervois and Vacqueyras.

In the United States, Mourvèdre is found primarily in California and Washington State with some limited plantings in Virginia.

In winemaking, wines made from Mourvèdre are prone to both oxidation and reductive flavors ( such as hydrogen sulfide ) if care is not taken at the winery.

While in Bandol, it is common to ferment Mourvèdre with the stems, the grapes usually go through a crusher / destemmer in New World regions such as a California due to the harsher, green tannins that are more typical of the stems in those regions.

Other red grapes include Cinsault, Counoise, Mourvèdre, Muscardin, Syrah, Terret Noir, and Vaccarèse.

A red Bandol wine from Provence made from at least 50 % Mourvèdre.

These wines can be made as a dedicated rosé where the skins are allowed only a brief period of skin contact ( a few hours or a single day ) before they are pressed or as saignée where some of the juice destined for a red Mourvèdre is " bled off " during fermentation creating two separate wines -- a darker, more concentrated red wine and the lighter rosé.

In the red wines the Grenache grape must be present at not less than 50 %, with 20 % Syrah and / or Mourvèdre.

* Catalan ( grape ), another name for the wine grape Mourvèdre

* Ros ( grape ), another name for the wine grape Mourvèdre

According to wine expert Oz Clarke, young Mourvèdre can come across as faulted due to the reductive, sulfur notes and " farmyard-y " flavors that some wines can exhibit before those flavors mellow with age.

As the French and other European wine regions recovered from the phylloxera scourge by grafting Vitis vinifera varieties to American rootstock, it was discovered that Mourvèdre vines did not take well to the grafting and many vineyards were replanted to other varieties.

Some of the oldest continually producing vines of Mourvèdre are in the New South Wales wine region of Riverland.

The small, thick-skin berries of Mourvèdre are high in phenolic compounds that have the potential to produce a deeply colored, very tannic wine with significant alcohol levels if harvested at high sugar levels.

According to wine expert Jancis Robinson, in favorable vintages Mourvèdre can produce highly perfumed wines with intense fruit flavors and notes of blackberries and gamy or meaty flavors.

In both Old and New World wine regions, Mourvèdre is a popular grape to be used in rosé winemaking.

In English-speaking wine producing areas, Mourvèdre is most commonly used and is the official name used by the U. S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

In the late 20th century, interest in Mourvèdre as a premium grape variety picked up as the Rhone Rangers began seeking out old vine plantings of the variety in vineyards Contra Costa County.

The grape clusters of Mourvèdre are relatively compact, enhancing its susceptibility to mildew, with small thick-skinned berries that are high in both color and flavor phenolics, particularly tannins.

Like many grape varieties, Mourvèdre was first introduced to Australia as part of James Busby's collection of cuttings from his European travels in the 1830s.

The Grenache grape is required to be present at not less than 50 %, with 20 % Syrah and / or Mourvèdre.

In the 1990s, critically acclaimed bottlings from Bonny Doon Vineyard and Cline Cellars Winery promoted increase demand in the variety and by the mid-2000s, plantings of Mourvèdre in California had risen to 260 ha ( 650 acres ).

According to ampelographer Pierre Galet Mourvèdre thrives in warm climates as the variety has a tendency to both bud and ripen very late.

In Australia and California, many of the oldest plantings of Mourvèdre are bush trained as the vines grows well vertically but the variety can be grown under many different kinds of vine training systems.

According to Pierre Galet, there are some plantings of Mourvèdre in Azerbaijan under a variety of synonyms that have not all been fully identified.

Côtes du Roussillon are made with the traditional variety grapes of the Roussillon, that is Grenache Noir, Grenache Blanc, Carignan, Lladoner Pelut, Cinsault, Macabeu and Malvoisie and with some new to the region variety grapes: Syrah, Mourvèdre, Roussanne, Marsanne ( all from Côte du Rhone ) and Vermentino ( from Italy ).