2024 Graciano

When Steve Carter established his Three Way Vineyard in Paso Robles, he had dreams of our making a Grenache Syrah Mourvèdre blend.  And so, in addition to Cabernet Sauvignon, he planted Grenache, Syrah, and what he was told by the nursery was Mourvèdre.  For two years we made what we thought was Mourvèdre.  We called it Mataro the California name for Mourvèdre.  When we put the wines into comparative tastings with other Mourvèdre’s we were blown away by how much color our wine had versus similarly priced Mourvèdres.  The fruit profile of our wine was also demonstrably better than the competition.  We thought ‘Wow we hit a home run at our first at bat with this variety’.  This feeling was strengthened when we entered the wine into the San Francisco International Wine competition and won Best of Show Red Wine.  A few months later we got a call from Steve.  Apparently, another grower that purchased Mourvèdre from the same nursey as Steve had hosted a grape taxonomist and during his visit, he questioned whether the vines the host claimed were Mourvèdre were indeed Mourvèdre.  At the taxonomist’s suggestion the grower had the vines tested and sure enough they were not Mourvèdre but Graciano.  It turned out the nursery made an error and provided Graciano and not Mourvèdre.  An understandable mix up given that a synonym for Mourvèdre is Monastrell and a synonym Graciano is Morrastel. To their credit the nursery offered to graft the Graciano in Steve’s vineyard to Mourvèdre at no cost.  However, by this time, we had made three vintages from the grapes and the wine each year was outstanding. So, at our request Steve politely turned down the nursery’s offer to graft the vineyard and it remains Graciano.