Cinsaut

Cinsaut has the ability to produce in high quantity, but is often regarded as poor to middle in quality by most people. It can be of high yields, but at low yields the grape can give characterful wines like Lebanon’s Chateau Musar. In Languedoc it can also produce wines with finesse, if at low yield and long maceration.

Aromatic in youth, with soft supple fruit, Cinsaut is often blended with Carignan to soften it. It can make attractive rose on its own, and in France it is often spelt as Cinsault, which is widely planted in southern France. It buds relatively late and is susceptible to mildew and oidium, but it got good drought resistance.

The grape is popular in North Africa and is Corsica’s main variety. It is also the parent of Pinotage, which is a crossing of Cinsaut and Pinot Noir, with the name representing the widely known but inaccurate name of Hermitage for Cinsaut in the Cape.

It is used for both fortified and table wines, with the best producers including l’Amarine, Mas de Daumas Gassac, Mas Jullien. It is known in centuries in Languedoc with much commonality as Grenache.

Lighter, softer, and in youth more aromatic and charmingly fruity than most other red grapes, it is used mostly to add suppleness, perfume and immediate fruit to blends. It is an approved ingredient in Chateauneuf-du-Pape but hardly contributes more than 5% in the blend.

In France its total plantings dropped in the 1980s but are still higher than Cabernet Sauvignon. It is still the most cultivated variety in Morocco, and an important part in the wine industry in Lebanon, responsible for up to 40% of wine grapes there in 2005.

Only overtaken by Cabernet Sauvignon as the most important variety starting 1993, it was South Africa’s fifth most planted red wine grape in 2004. It was also sold as table grapes in France and Australia as O’Eillade. There is strong DNA evidence that the grape originates from Languedoc-Roussillon. In Italy it was cultivated already in the 17^th century. In the 1950s and 60s, a lot of the Cinsaut wines were imported from Algeria to beef up the weedy burgundies.

I have recently tasted a bottle of VDP d'Oc Cinsault rose and below is my tasting note:

Les Jamelles Cinsault 2010
Acceptable quality Pays d'Oc rose with light pink color, the nose is aromatic but simple, showing fair concentration of raspberry, strawberry and candy, rose and lavender, with hints of tomato. A good acidity to provide freshness, the wine is fairly light bodied. Fairly light in palate with f...lavors of raspberry and strawberry, rose, the wine has a short finish. It is ready to drink now and not suitable for ageing.