Marsanne Wine Grapes, Flavor, Character, History
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Marsanne is the most popular white wine grape planted in the Northern Rhone wine region. In Hermitage, where the fruit reaches its best expression, it is usually blended with Roussanne. Marsanne adds depth and produces rich, deeply colored wines with flavors and scents of roasted nuts, pears, white peaches, honeydew melon, spice and flowers. With age, Marsanne based wines deepen in color and complexity.
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Marsanne grows well in the granite and limestone soils that are typical of the Northern Rhone valley. The vines, which take a long time to mature can live for quite a while. Some old vines are known to be over 100 years of age! The grapes are small in size, with a skin that combine gold, green and brown hues. Marsanne is an interesting grape to harvest. Growers tend to pick the fruit before it achieves optimum levels of ripeness, in order to retain as much acidity as possible to balance the wines.
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The top producers using Marsanne in Hermitage are JL Chave and Chapoutier. The fruit is also grown in Australia, Spain, Switzerland and America. In California, Tablas Creek and Sine Qua Non are two of most succesful wineries using Marsanne. Sine Qua Non has produced non traditional blends which can include Chardonnay. However, even when you add up all the acreage in all those countries, France maintains the largest amount of Marsanne planted in the world.
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