By Jim Boyce | The first World Marselan Day saw wine fans in the United States, Germany, Brazil, Romania, China and elsewhere open bottles from around the planet to celebrate this fascinating grape. The event is held on April 27, the birthday of Paul Truel, who created this cross of Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache in 1961.
Because I only found out Truel’s birth date in early April, there wasn’t much time to prepare for this year’s event, thus making the response even more inspiring.
In Beijing, we featured Marselan in our ninth Grape Wall Challenge, a contest with consumers as wine judges. We tasted wines made along a 3000-km stretch of China, from Shandong and its monsoon climate in the east to Ningxia and Xinjiang and their hot, dry sunny growing seasons in the west. More details here.
In the United States, professors Pierre Ly and Cynthnia Howson marked World Marselan Day with a wine from France.
Meanwhile in Minnesota, Jeff Burrows opened a bottle of Chinese Marselan, from the winery Amethyst in Hebei province, that he recently picked up in Shanghai.
Lauren Walsh aka The Swirling Dervish tried a Marselan from Salton in Brazil and wrote that it “tickled my fancy!”
And Edward Bevan had Marselan from another South American country—Uruguay!—from Bodega Garzon.
In Romania, Mark Dworkin, who has consulted for wineries in China, opened a bottle of locally made Marselan.
Nearby in Germany, Jorg Phillip and Wusana Woo managed to find an organic offering.
And in Brazil, Casa Perini got into the spirit!
There were also, of course, Marselan fans in China, including in Shanghai, where La Galerie celebrated the day.
In Beijing, along with our Grape Wall Challenge, we also used some of our wine to make tasty frozen margaritas aka frozen Mar(selan)garitas. (Reduce the tequila by half and add 90 ml of Marselan. Try this at home!)
I’ve been on the road much of the past month but will gather more photos and wine names and posts more about Marselan soon. That includes a Chinese Marselan brand that, I just learned, was launched on April 27!
Thanks to all who participated in the first World Marselan Day for spreading the word about this grape and this project.
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