Graciano
sounds Italian, and it is grown successfully in Italy on the island of Sardinia
where it is called Bovale Sardo or Cagnulari.
But the majority of the World’s Graciano is found in Spain especially in
the region of Rioja where it has traditionally been used as a blending grape
with Tempranillo. Graciano is a high
acid variety with great color and surprisingly elegant tannins; a perfect match
for Tempranillo which often lacks both color and especially acid. Graciano has not had its fifteen minutes of
fame probably because it is not that productive, and despite the quality of the
wines it produces growers have been hesitant to plant Graciano. In recent years
however, winemakers in Spain are beginning to appreciate the fresh, fragrant,
spicy, and occasionally powerful character of Graciano and it has been bottled
as a varietal by several forward-thinking Spanish producers.
Our
Graciano comes from Steve Carter’s Three Way Vineyard in Paso Robles. When Steve planted the Graciano in 2012 he
thought he had planted Mourvedre. At
least that was what he ordered from Sunridge Nursery and that’s what the
nursery claimed to have sent to him. A
couple of years later the nursery discovered that close to 80% of the vines that
Sunridge sold as Mourvedre in 2012 was really Graciano. The Nursery has offered to graft the Graciano
to Mourvedre and provide the Steve some compensation for the lost production
grafting entails. But given the success we have had with this wine, whether we
called it Mataro (Mourvedre in California is often called Mataro) or Graciano, we
asked Steve to pass on the offer from Sunridge and keep the Graciano.
The
principal measurement of maturity in a grape is the grape’s sugar content. As a grape ripens the sugar content increases
and acid respires. We harvest when
flavors are at their peak and the balance between sugar and acid has been
achieved. As I mentioned earlier Graciano is a high acid variety, and it is not
uncommon for us to determine the harvest of Graciano based more upon the
reduction of acid than the accumulation of sugar. Invariably the grapes are very sweet when we
harvest, and the wine often has some late harvest characters. Despite the suggestion of sweetness on the
palate, the wine is dry and there is no residual sugar. The fruit flavors are
that of ripe concentrated dark fruits; plums, black currants and desiccating
blackberries, and the alcohol is invariably north of 15%.
