Mourvedre outside France and Spain

Nice choices, Mark!

...and thanks for acknowledging Horton, of Virginia. I think that area will be producing some exciting wines in the future. Horton does a nice job with Viognier and with Tempranillo as well.

As for California---I could add to your list and recommend 2 wines from California's Central Coast region.

The most widely available Mouvrdre would be from Wild Horse, one of the pioneers of Rhone varietals in that part of California. They also produce a whole "stable" of off-beat varietals, such as Arneis and Tannat.

The other is very hard to find, even in California: it's tiny Rideau Vineyards, from the Santa Ynez area of Santa Barbara County. I tried one Mouvedre there out of barrel a few years ago that was superb; but at that time, there were only going to be 100 cases of that wine available.

---Bob

In Australia, good Mourvedres are made by Jenke, Hewitson (Old Garden, from

150 yo vines), D'Arenberg (The twenty-eight road) and Cascabel. Someone, but I've forgotten who, does a Mourvedre-Shiraz-Grenache blend called MSG.

Other notable wines include Wendouree Shiraz Mataro, Wendouree Pressings (this might be a straight mourvedre; I'm not sure) and Veritas Binder's Bull's Blood Shiraz Mourvedre Pressings. These are huge wines.

Kieran