Eric Asimov's latest Wine School features three of our favorite Grenache wines (or Garnacha, as they call it in Spanish) :

• A Tribute to Grace's Santa Barbara Grenache,
• Commando G's La Bruja de Rozas Garnacha from the Gredos mountains,
• Gour de Chaulé's Gigondas Cuvée Tradition from the Southern Rhone.

These are producers we've featured in our Newsletter many times over the years and we're excited to see them together in the New York Times! Seeing these wines side by side offers an incredible study in the nature of terroir in wine.  

Santa Barbara with its California Sunshine and cool ocean breezes, Spain's Gredos mountains with old stony plots, and the rolling garrigue-covered hills of Southern French have very obvious differences of altitude, soil, climate and microclimate. 

But terroir isn't just the land on which a grape is grown; it can include such variables as the humans making the wine, the yeast used to start the ferment (ambient yeast in the air, or purchased from a lab), the weather conditions of the vintage and much more. Looking at these wines together is exactly the kind of experiment we like to participate in!

We can't overstate how much we love these producers. The amount of care and attention that goes into every bottle is what some might call excessive...until you taste the wines, and appreciate each nuance.

You can see Eric's column here or check out our complete selection of Grenache wines