A love letter to cinsault

How a previously underrated grape variety is finally having its moment in the sun.

“Best forgotten”, “infamous”, “characterless” - these are just some of the descriptions used to describe the red grape variety cinsault by Master of Wine Benjamin Lewin in his 2010 book Wine Myths and Realities. 

He’s not the only one. Patrick J. Comiskey in American Rhone damns it with faint praise by calling it: “a very serviceable component in blends.” Until recently, in cinsault’s home in the Languedoc, it was thought only good for rosé. Consultants would advise vineyard owners to pull it up and replace with syrah or even cabernet. Poor unloved cinsault!

Now, however, cinsault could not be more fashionable, at least in the wine bore circles I move in. South African wine writer Tšepang Molisana told me: “cinsault went from overlooked to overbooked in the 2010s”. Cinsault’s home might be the south of France, but the real impetus for its revival has come from the Cape. The country has a lot of it, as Molisana explained: “in 1980, it was the most widely planted red variety in South Africa.” But it was just considered a “workhorse variety” making everything from red wine to brandy. 

It’s thought that part of the reason why some old Cape cabernets have aged so beautifully is that they used to contain a good dollop of freshening cinsault. In the last ten years, Molisana explained how pioneering producers in the Swartland region like “Mullineux Leeu Family Wines, Blank Bottle, Sadie Family Wines, Landskroon Wines and Neil Ellis” discovered that something sublime could be made using old vine cinsault on its own. 

She compared it to pinot noir and she’s not the only one. Michael Karam, an Anglo-Lebanese writer, has long flown the flag for cinsault calling it the “pinot noir of the Bekaa valley”, Lebanon’s viticultural heartland. It’s alway been a component in the country’s greatest wines, Chateau Musar, but Karam was convinced that it could work well on its own.

When I visited the Bekaa with Karam, we tasted cask samples of cinsault at various wineries and they were often the best things there. Usually they go into blends but in 2016 he convinced one young winemaker Faouzi Issa (above) at Domaine des Tourelles to bottle some commercially. Issa released a spicy heady wine made entirely from cinsault with extraordinary flavours of rose petal, cinnamon and almond. Since then every vintage I’ve tried has been superb. And it’s a bargain at under £20 a bottle. If you’re nice, Issa might let you try some of his 100% cinsault wine from 1976 which is still going strong.

With such a track record, you might wonder why this grape variety has been neglected for so long? Karam puts it down to snobbery. When Lebanon’s wine industry was revitalised after the Civil War ended in 1990, producers wanted to emulate Napa and Bordeaux, and planted cabernet. It was the same all over the world. Because there were no famous wines made from 100% cinsault, it wasn’t valued. Maverick Californian winemaker Randall Grahm from Bonny Doon vineyards explained: “Nobody gets too excited about supporting characters in movies or in wines.”

Plus, if you’re brought up on big oaky wines, then cinsault takes a bit of getting used to. Graham said: “There's very little about cinsault that appeals to the American taste/obsession for power and concentration. Cinsault doesn't have a lot of tannin nor color and there has never been a move made celebrating its subtle charms.” Nowadays, however, tastes are changing and people are appreciating wines that are more delicate.

But you do have to be careful or you end up with the kind of wines Lewin was describing. Graham explained: “one of the biggest challenges to successfully growing cinsault is keeping the size of the bunches and ultimately the yield under control.  Vigorous sites, rich soils don't work well.”

Matt Walls, author of the Wines of the Rhone, agrees: “it has a natural propensity for high yields, and the wines tend not to be very deep in colour. It can be a bit insipid when young vines are cropped high but old vines with lower yields can produce some beautiful wines.” It also thrives in the heat, retaining acidity and freshness, so it’s a grape that suits a warming climate. “It's resistant to heat and drought, so it's gaining fans in the Rhône and Southern France more broadly,” Walls said.

Despite this, South Africa is still the epicentre of cinsault excitement. There are also some great Chilean and Californian examples but it’s still somewhat neglected in its home country though this is beginning to change. Clos Centeilles in Minervois has long flown the flag for cinsault. Now there are other producers bottling solo cinsault like Domaine des Trinites in Faugeres. There’s even a 100% cinsault Châteauneuf-du-Pape from Isabel Ferrando. Yours for around £500.

To highlight the brilliance of this still underrated variety, in 2021 Walls organised a ‘Cinsault Olympics’ in London; a blind tasting to determine the world’s best example which he dubbed Cin City. The top three places were taken by South African wines (AA Badenhorst, Ringmuur Cinsault; Leeu Passant, Old Vines Basson Cinsault; Blankbottle 'Pseudonym') with Lebanon (Domaine des Tourelles) and California (Birichino) coming in in fourth and fifth places. I was less taken with the Chilean wines than the other and France was nowhere to be seen though that may just be because we couldn’t get hold of the best examples like that £500 100% Cinsault Châteauneuf-du-Pape. I think it might be time for a rematch. Cin City revisited!