Wow! This is the Grape of the Future

• "Miracle Marselan: A Marvelous New Varietal" – Nick Passmore, Bloomberg (2011): “Marselan, a crossing of Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon, is one of those environmental tweaks that hasn’t had much impact on the world, but it looks like it may actually be catching on.”
• "Identity Crisis: Marselan" – Burke Morton: “It is absolutely amazing. It is the top of the top variety, better than Syrah.”
• "Under the Radar: Marselan is Now China’s New Signature Variety" – Elizabeth Gabay, MW, The Drinks Business (2021): “A wide-ranging tasting of Marselan I undertook this March revealed a variety bursting with great potential. Diverse styles ranged from fresh and fruity to big and intense, with the common denominators being good fruit, fresh acidity, and fine tannins. Despite its slow but steady growth, Marselan remains relatively unknown. This may all be about to change.”
• "A Magical Wine Experience" – Professor Li Demai, Chief Winemaker, Domaine Franco-Chinois: “Marselan offers a magical wine experience with excellent production features, strong adaptability, rich flavors, and a full, concentrated taste with versatile stylistic charm.”
• Ch’ng Poh Tiong, Wine Writer and Judge – Decanter (2021): “I’ve been impressed, over the years... most of all with Marselan. It seduces with floral notes and red fruits from its Grenache parentage, while showing the structure, freshness, and black fruit depth of Cabernet.”
• "Marselan: Orphan Grape Variety in the Okanagan" – John Schreiner: “Marselan is a newcomer worth watching. It produces deeply colored, fragrant wines with ripe fruit flavors and soft, supple tannins—you can almost taste the sun-kissed grapes in the glass.”
• "Marselan from the Med Reaches Our Shores!" – Nick Stephens, Bordeaux Undiscovered (2016): “I fell in love with Marselan in Brazil. It has the creamy, fleshy texture of Grenache along with the complexity of Cabernet, with red-cherry fruit, a flashy mouthfeel, and soft yet discernible tannins.”
• Bodega Kuhlman, Gran Patrono Premium Reserve Marselan, Bolivia: “A complex, full-bodied wine, balanced and aromatic. Rich in light, harmonious tannins, with aromas of blackcurrant, raspberry, cocoa, plums, raisins, smoky notes, pepper, spices, and licorice.”
• "Marselan Finds a Home in China" – Ian D’Agata, Terroir Sense Wine Review (2022): “Marselan offers just about everything any wine lover would want in a grape and its wine.”

And we’ll give the final word to Jancis Robinson, the world’s foremost wine critic, who in an interview for Le Figaro (2013) said:

“People look for authenticity and traceability as a reaction to the industrialization of wine. Among a few interesting new varieties, Marselan seems to have a real future.”

The question I often ponder is this: We’ve seen Cabernet Sauvignon surpass its own father, now playing second fiddle in the Bordeaux lineup. So, will Marselan also outshine its noble parent in the face of climate change? Only time, and the future, will reveal the answer...

Special thanks to Jim Boyce at The Grape Wall of China, a leading authority on Marselan, for contributing to this information.

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