18
Jan

Navarra will host the 10th edition of the international competition

• The Navarrese town of Olite will host the 10th edition of the prestigious competition, to be held from 4 to 6 May 2022.
• For three days, a hundred national and international wine professionals will taste some 1,000 Grenache wines to select the best.

Perpignan, December 2021.- The Navarrese appellation has been chosen to host the 10th edition of the Grenaches du Monde competition, an international contest dedicated to this grape variety and its preferred terroirs. Around a hundred national and international wine professionals (importers, distributors, journalists, and sommeliers, among others) will meet in the Navarrese town of Olite from 4 to 6 May to taste some 1,000 Grenache wines and select the best ones.
The choice of Olite as the venue for the competition reaffirms the Navarre appellation’s commitment to the Grenache grape, the region’s emblematic variety, which produces excellent red, rosé, and white wines.
“For the competition and its founder, the Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins du Roussillon, it is with pride that we see the great family of Grenaches du Monde grow with Navarre as a partner. In Olite we have found a perfect associate who shares our “grenachist” values: generosity, conviviality, and friendship. We have no doubt that the quality of this future edition will be very promising” explains Fabrice Rieu, President of the contest.
“We are very pleased to have been selected to organise this prestigious international competition. This recognition encourages the wineries and winegrowers of Navarre to continue the effort and work they have done to place Navarre on the world map of Grenache, as there are studies that affirm that this variety is native to Navarre”, says Javier Santafé, Director General of the D.O. Navarra Regulatory Council.
Grenaches du Monde is an annual contest open to all Grenache wines, without restriction of colour, origin or nationality.
With 163,000 hectares of vineyards, Grenache is the seventh most planted grape variety in the world. It is the emblematic variety of the Mediterranean countries, mainly Spain and France, since together they account for almost 90% of the world’s planted area. Spain, France and Italy are the three main producing countries, but Grenache is very popular throughout the world: North and South Africa, Australia, North and South America, Croatia, Greece, Lebanon, etc. In Spain, it is mainly grown in the Ebro Valley: Navarra, Rioja, Aragon, and Catalonia, although it is also found in other regions such as the Sierra de Gredos in Madrid.
About Grenaches du Monde: Created in 2013 by the Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins du Roussillon (CIVR) in Perpignan, the Concours Grenaches du Monde, became itinerant in 2016 with its first edition held in Aragon (Campo de Borja), then in Sardinia (2017) and in Catalonia (Terra Alta, 2018). In 2019, the competition will return to Perpignan, and the following year it will head to Montpellier in partnership with Vins de Pays d’Oc, the world’s leading producer of rosé Grenache wines. In 2021, due to the pandemic situation, the Competition has been split into 4 successive tastings: Cebreros in Spain, Perpignan and Châteauneuf-du-Pape in France and Ascoli Piceno in Italy.