Mourvèdre (; also known as Mataro or Monastrell) is a red wine grape variety grown in many regions around the world. It is found in the Rhône and Provence regions of France, the Valencia, Alicante and Jumilla, Bullas and Yecla denominaciones de origen (DOs) of Spain, as well as the Balearic Islands, California and Washington and the Australian regions of South Australia and New South Wales, plus South Africa. In addition to making red varietal wines, Mourvèdre is a prominent component in "GSM" (Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre) blends. The variety is also used to make rosé and port-style fortified wines.
Mourvèdre tends to produce tannic wines that can be high in alcohol. The style of wine produced from the grapes varies greatly according to where it is produced, but according to wine expert Jancis Robinson Mourvèdre wines often have wild game<!-- suspect a translation error: is this really gamy -->, or earthy notes to them, with soft red fruit flavors. According to wine expert Oz Clarke, young Mourvèdre can come across as faulted due to the reductive, sulfur notes and "farmyard-y" flavors that some wines can exhibit before those flavors mellow with age.
The variety can be a difficult grape to grow, preferring "its face in the hot sun and its feet in the water" meaning that it needs very warm weather, a low leaf-to-fruit ratio but adequate water or irrigation to produce intensely flavored fruit that is not overly jammy or herbaceous.
Mourvèdre arrived in California in the 1860s as part of the Pellier collection. blends (many from the surviving, low yield old vine plantings). With a slight increase in planting there were more than 1000 ha of Mataro in Australia by the mid-2000s.) as growers pull up older plantings and replant them with popular international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. However, the variety still has a strong hold in eastern Spain where it is widely planted in several Spanish wine regions around Murcia and the Valencian Community. Under Spanish wine law, Monastrell is one of the primary red wine grape varieties in the DOPs of Jumilla, Yecla, Valencia, Almansa, and Alicante.
France
In France, Mourvèdre doesn't grow much farther north than the Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC in the southern Rhône; and even there it has some trouble ripening in cooler vintages. It tends to ripen most consistently in the warmer Provençal region of Bandol AOC along the Mediterranean coast where the growing season is often 5 °C warmer.
In Châteauneuf-du-Pape it is one of the 18 permitted varieties in the red wine but is often a secondary component behind Grenache and Syrah. The exceptions are notable blends from producers such as Château de Beaucastel which often has Mourvèdre account for more than a third of the blend.
New World
In the United States, Mourvèdre is found primarily in California and Washington State with some limited plantings in Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Virginia. In the US, the style of Mourvèdre tends to be less tannic than Old World examples such as Bandols.
left|thumb|Mourvèdre/Mataro was first planted in Washington State at Red Willow Vineyard in the Yakima Valley.
In California, Mourvèdre reached the United States in the 1860s as part of the Pellier collection Its numbers would have declined more drastically had the variety not captured the interest of Rhone Rangers in the 1980s and 90s, who began seeking out old-vine plantings of the variety in vineyards Contra Costa County. On the heels of some critically acclaimed varietal and Rhone-style blends (as well as the introduction of better quality clones) featuring Mourvèdre, plantings in California rose slightly from 260 ha (650 acres) at the turn of the 21st century to 900 acres in 2010. Like many grape varieties, Mourvèdre was first introduced to Australia as part of James Busby's collection of cuttings from his European travels in the 1830s. There it was quickly established in the South Australia wine region of the Barossa Valley by Lutheran immigrants from the Silesia Province in Prussia. From there it was spread by English immigrants to the McLaren Vale region south of Adelaide. Some of the oldest continually producing vines of Mourvèdre are in the New South Wales wine region of Riverina or South Australian wine region of Riverland. Turkey Flat Vineyards in the Barossa Valley was one of the forerunners of producing Mourvèdre as a single varietal wine with its first vintage in 2005.
Other regions
right|thumb|A Spanish Mourvèdre, known there as Monastrell, from the Bullas wine region.
According to Pierre Galet, there are some plantings of Mourvèdre in Azerbaijan under a variety of synonyms that have not all been fully identified.
Synonyms and relationship to other grapes
Mourvèdre is the name used in France. Worldwide, there are 95 other names, including Mataro, which is used in Portugal and parts of the New World; and Monastrell, which is used in Spain. In English-speaking wine producing areas, Mourvèdre is most commonly used; it is the official name used by the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Despite the similarities of its synonyms, Mourvèdre has no relation to the Spanish wine grape Graciano which is also known as Morrastel in France. Despite having the synonym Rossola nera, Mourvèdre has no known relationship to the Lombardy wine grape of the same name with the latter being an offspring of the Piedmontese wine grape Nebbiolo.