Mourvèdre, warm climate red grape variety whose considerable fortunes in Spain have been declining (see monastrell) while it has become markedly more fashionable elsewhere. Plantings in France, where it is enjoying a resurgence of popularity in the south, had grown to 9,375 ha/23,156 acres by 2011, the second biggest national total after Spain’s. It cannot be grown successfully much further north than the southern Rhône, however, since it is so late ripening. It is the characteristic grape variety of bandol and is increasingly popular with producers of châteauneuf-du-pape because it ripens at lower sugar levels than grenache. In California and Australia it was often called Mataro but has been enjoying a new lease of life as either varietal Mourvèdre or in a blend with Grenache and Syrah/Shiraz, sometimes called gsm.
