Mourvèdre

Mourvèdre is the most demanding of the southern French trio it usually appears in. It ripens very late, needs a great deal of heat, and famously wants its feet in water and its head in the sun — meaning it requires warmth but will not tolerate drought stress.

Get those conditions wrong and the wine is hard, reductive and animal in an unpleasant way. Get them right and it is one of the most structured and long-lived reds of the Mediterranean: dense, tannic and dark, with blackberry and black plum, and a savoury register of leather, game, dried herbs, black pepper and earth. It is the most obviously meaty of the common red varieties.

Bandol, on the Provençal coast, is where it reaches its highest expression, required by the appellation rules to make up at least half of the red blend and usually far more. Those wines need a decade and last for thirty years.

It is also the M in the GSM blend, contributing structure, colour and savour to Grenache's fruit and Syrah's spice across the southern Rhône, Languedoc and Australia.

As Monastrell it is one of Spain's most planted varieties, concentrated in Jumilla, Yecla and Alicante, where old bush vines on poor limestone soil produce dark, concentrated, high-alcohol wines that offer some of the best value in the country.

In Australia and California it has long been called Mataro, a name that has gradually given way to Mourvèdre as its reputation improved.

Its reductive tendency is the practical problem in the cellar. Mourvèdre readily produces hydrogen sulphide and related compounds, giving a struck, rubbery or farmyard character that is unpleasant when excessive and, in moderation, part of the savoury complexity the grape is valued for. Managing that line is most of the skill in making it.

Bandol's requirement for a high proportion of Mourvèdre in both red and rosé is unusual in French appellation law, where varietal minimums are more often nominal. The appellation also requires eighteen months in wood for the reds.

In Spain, as Monastrell, it is planted on a scale that dwarfs its French presence, and Jumilla and Yecla offer some of the best value dense red wine anywhere. Those wines are riper and fruitier than Bandol and have less of the savoury, gamey register that defines the French style.