GSM Wines Demystified! (Red wine blend any wine lover needs to know, Côtes du Rhône, Rhône-style blends)

Show Notes

Episode 81: GSM Wines Demystified!

Hello! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair! 

Ok, a quick orientation for those of you who may be new to the podcast - in each episode we learn about, taste and give our honest review of three wines that are reasonably priced - meaning under $20 each -  and should be easy for you to find. And, our podcast is made for people like us - people who love wine, and want to learn more about wine, find new wines to explore, and feel more confident when we talk about and order wines. So, if that sounds like you, you are in the right place - and, we invite you to taste these wines or a wine from your stash along with us while you listen as a fun way to participate in the podcast! And we are proud to say that we are officially recommended by the editors of Decanter Magazine who call us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining. 

Carmela, today we are going to do an episode where we will demystify the GSM blend. Do you find GSMs mysterious? Are you mystified by it?

We did a minisode about red wine blends a few months ago, a primer if you will, and the GSM blend is one that we covered because it is one of the classic red wine blends. There are really two sort of classic red wine blends - the Bordeaux blend which is usually heavy in Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and the GSM blend which is a mixture of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre. You can pretty much guess that if a wine says “red wine blend” it is highly likely that it is a variation on one of these two blends.

I have mixed feelings about red wine blends, do you? I have mixed feelings about them mostly because I find the term very frustrating. Do you know why I find them frustrating? Well, it’s mostly because very often the wine maker will not indicate on the bottle what the red wine blend is. I mean, how can you know if you are going to like a red wine blend if you don’t know what’s in it? It’s like saying to a bartender “I’ll have a mixed drink.” That doesn’t tell the bartender or you anything! What would you expect to get back?

So, form a very basic wine drinking perspective, knowing what a GSM blend is, and determining whether or not you like that blend is key! That way you can more easily tell if you are going to like a wine or not. And, if you go to a restaurant and you ask what kinds of wine they have and they tell you they have a red blend and you ask what is in the red blend and they don’t know - I would not order it. 

The other thing about red wine blends that is really tricky is that the blend can vary a great deal from wine to wine, and even from year to year with the same wine and winemaker. Now, good winemakers will try and make the wines as consistent as possible from year to year. But, because the % of each wine can vary, it can be very hard to tell what exactly you are going to get in the blend, and, ultimately, the good wine makers want to make the best wine they can with the grapes they harvest each year. 

And, over the years, red blends have sometimes gotten a bad rap because some winemakers would just make crappy wines with crappy grapes and put all of those crappy grapes together in a goulash and sell them as a red blend or a red table wine, and that was just fine for some people. But not me! And hopefully not you!

So, we are going to demystify what exactly a GSM blend is, then we are going to taste and review three GSM blends from different parts of the world  . . . 

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ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://localstastingroom.com/2018/01/05/what-is-a-gsm-wine/#:~:text=GSM%20are%20the%20initials%20for,that%20echoes%20the%20wines'%20aroma.  

Topic: WTF are GSM blends? 08:36

Ok, Carmela, are you ready to learn just what the fuck GSM blends are, and what makes them so special?

Well, first, we kind of already gave this part away, but a GSM blend is a red wine made from the grapes Grenache, Syrah or Shiraz if you are in Australia, and Mourvèdre (moor - veh - druh). There can be other grapes in there as well, but those are the key or classic grapes.

Usually, the balance of the grapes in a GSM blend follows the letters - they tend to be heaviest in Grenache and lightest in Mourvèdre. However, some winemakers may flip that and use more Syrah than Grenache. It just depends. The difference is that Grenahce heavy wines will be a little lighter in flavor - more fruity with flavors like raspberry and candied fruit, while a Syrah heavy wine will be a little richer or bolder or spicier and add flavors like blueberry, plum, or even black olive. Mourvèdre, again, is the smallest part of the blend, and it adds some tannin and some say flowery kinds of flavors. 

Sometimes a GSM blend is called a Rhône-style blend, and that is because the classic home of the GSM blend is in the Côtes du Rhône region of France. In the Côtes du Rhône they can actually use up to 19 different varieties of grapes in their blends, but the most classic combination is Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre.

Just so you know, there are other wines from France that you have probably heard of that are made from GSM blends but you may not have known they are GSM. Two famous ones are Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas. But those are specific wines for another day. Just remember that in France, wines are generally known by the area they come from rather than the grapes that are in them, so you just kind of have to start getting familiar with that fact. 

Now, GSM blends are not just found in the Côtes du Rhône area of France - they are found all over the world. Southern Australia, which is famous for its Shiraz, which is their word for Syrah, makes GSM blends, and in fact, we are going to be tasting a GSM blend from Southern Australia today. By the way, their M in the mix is Mataro, which is the name they use for Mourvèdre. Those crazy Australians and their unique words! You can also find GSM blends in California, particularly Paso Robles, in Washington state, and in Priorat Spain, although the blend there is a little different, and their M may include a grape they call Mazuelo but that we know as Carignan. Don’t worry, you can look all of this up on our show notes if you go to our website and look for this episode and click on the show notes. 

Quality GSMs are prized for their complexity and for their ability to pair with foods, particularly Mediterranean foods. The wines are generally medium to full bodied with a lot of tannin and some solid acidity. 

I will say that GSM blends are not my go-to wines, but I think if you are a wine drinker and learning to be someone who really appreciates wine, GSM blends are just a central piece of what you need to know. Again, it is a classic wine blend from a very classic area of wine making in France, and so understanding GSM blends and having them as part of your repertoire, as the French would say, is pretty basic. 

So, on that note, I think it’s time to learn a little more about the specific wines we are drinking today. 

ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://winefolly.com/wines/rhone-gsm-blend/
• https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/dining/wine-school-assignment-gigondas.html#:~:text=Like%20Ch%C3%A2teauneuf%2C%20Gigondas%20is%20made,saw%2Dtoothed%20Dentelles%20de%20Montmirail.
• https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/try-gsm-cotes-du-rhone-blend/
• https://www.google.com/search?q=how+do+you+pronounce+mourvedre&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS860US860&oq=how+do+you+pronounce+mour&aqs=chrome.0.0i512j69i57j0i512l4j0i22i30l4.5113j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:ca3f68da,vid:T5oLV6t9qqo 

GSM Wines We Chose for This Episode 14:11

As usual, all of the wines we have chosen for this episode are under $20, and all of them should be relatively easy to find because I bought them all at wine.com, although you can easily find a GSM blend just about anywhere. Most of the wine areas I see in stores have a red blend section, and if you go to a wine shop that has a section for Rhone wines, you can bet you are going to find some GSM blends. So, although I did not do it, I could have easily found a GSM or Rhône style blend basically anywhere. The biggest trick, actually, is just understanding the mix of the grapes in the blend, and so I was really trying to focus on that, and that was easier to do when buying the wines online because I could look up the information.

All of these wines have good ratings from reputable wine reviewers, meaning anyone other than James Suckling, so in addition to being reasonably priced and easy to find, they at least have a shot at being good and having a high QPR or quality to price ratio. 

Ok, our first wine is called Domaine Saint Gayan Trescartes Côtes du Rhône, and as you can probably guess, it is from Côtes du Rhône in France. It is one of two wines we are drinking today from that region, and I guess I wanted to make sure that if we were going to talk about GSM, we should focus on the homeland of GSM. If we do a follow-up episode, we can try some GSM blends from the US and other areas.

This wine is actually from a winery that is in Gigondas, but it is not technically a Gigondas wine. According to the winemaker, this wine is a blend of 60% Grenache, 25% Syrah, 10% Carignan, and 5% Mourvèdre. So, it has another grape, as it is allowed to, in Carignan, in addition to the GSM grapes. And, remember, these wines can have up to 19 different grapes in them. The wines are also said to grow in Sandy clay-limestone and rolled pebbles, so I am very curious to see if any of that terroir comes through in the taste of the wine. 

Wine Spectator rated this wine a 90, which is a very good rating for them.

Our next wine is from Southern Australia and is called d'Arenberg The Stump Jump GSM. Right off the bat I was interested in this wine because it was pretty cheap at $12.99, is from Australia, has a pretty cool looking bottle, has a screw cap, tells you on the bottle it is a GSM, and got a 91 rating from Wine Enthusiast and they named it a Best Buy. I mean, holy cow. The wine maker says the label is inspired by eye charts at the eye doctors. Which is kind of cool. 

This wine is a blend of 46% Grenache, 42% Shiraz, 12% Mourvèdre. Again, often Australian GSM blends will be heavier in Shiraz or Syrah, but this one is sort of split between the two. The winery also says that “The grapes used in this wine are mostly from very old bush vines, and underwent gentle crushing, traditional open tank fermentation, basket pressing and oak maturation prior to bottling.” 

This winery is supposed to be well-known for their Shiraz, and some of their vines go back more than 100 years!  And, this winery was evidently inducted into Wine & Spirits Magazine's Hall of Fame for earning a place on its Top 100 Wineries nine times. 

Ok, our last wine is called Les Alexandrins Terrasses de l'Eridan Côtes du Rhône and it is obviously from the Rhône region of France, and it is a blend of 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre. So, all of these wines have slightly different blends. And, this wine got an 89 rating from Wine Spectator, which is a pretty good rating. 

On the website, the winemaker says “After the harvest is sorted and destemmed, vinification takes place in stainless steel and oak. Aging partly in wood fermenters and partly in stainless steel vats for 8 months.” They also note that the summer that this wine was made in was a day and hot summer, and so they recommend some aging. Since this is a 2017, so 6 years old as we drink it, hopefully it will be close to ready to drink but we’ll see if we think it is still on the sharp side.

But, I think that is enough information - let’s get to drinking! We’ll take a quick break and be right back. And, if you have these wines or similar wines, drink along with us!


ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://www.yapp.co.uk/cotes-du-rhone-domaine-saint-gayan-trescartes-2019 
• https://cellar.com/177671/darenberg-stump-jump-gsm-2017 
• https://m.lesalexandrins.com/M57MVE#:~:text=%22The%20Maison%20Les%20Alexandrins%20C%C3%B4tes,all%20emerge%20from%20the%20glass

GSM Wine Pairing Tasting and Reviews 21:25

Wine: Domaine Saint Gayan Trescartes Côtes du Rhône (Click here to learn more about this wine on wine.com. Affiliate link)
Region: France, Rhône
Year: 2017
Price: $15.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 14%
Grapes: 60% Grenache, 25% Syrah, 10% Carignan, and 5% Mourvèdre
Professional Rating: WS 90

What we tasted and smelled in this GSM:

• On the nose: Tomato, earthy, soil, sweetness, cherry, vegetable, green pepper, spicy, black pepper, black olive, briny, complex
• In the mouth: Tart, sweet, fruity, underripe Rainier cherry, a touch astringent, nice, smooth, complex, balanced, approachable, elegant

Food to pair with this GSM: Roast, fall foods, bolognese pasta, ragu, beef stroganoff, Beef Wellington, very good food wine
 
As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and a 5 or 6 means we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it. 

Rating: 

• Joe: 8/10
• Carmela: 7/10

Wine: d'Arenberg The Stump Jump GSM (Click here to learn more about this wine on wine.com. Affiliate link)
Region:  Australia, South Australia
Year: 2017
Price: $12.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 14.5%
Grapes: 46% Grenache, 42% Shiraz, 12% Mourvèdre
Professional Rating: WE 91 Best Buys

What we tasted and smelled in this GSM:

• On the nose: Stinky sock, earth, warm, spicy, road tar, hot pavement, warm spices, vegetable, asparagus
• In the mouth: Very tart, tart raspberry, tart strawberry, cranberry, complex, less elegant than the last wine, more of a party wine, casual, crowd pleaser, needs to be opened up

Food to pair with this GSM: Cookout wine, barbecue, burger, grilled foods, brisket, smoked foods, smoked sausage, smoked cheese sausage

Rating: 

• Joe: 7/10
• Carmela: 6/10

Wine: Les Alexandrins Terrasses de l'Eridan Côtes du Rhône (Click here to learn more about this wine on wine.com. Affiliate link)
Region: France, Rhône
Year: 2017
Price: $15.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 13.5%
Grapes: 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre
Professional Rating: 89

What we tasted and smelled in this GSM:

• On the nose: Tomato soup, vegetables, almost like wilted lettuce or vegetable, smells alocholy, candy, red licorice, cherry Jolly Rancher
• In the mouth: More mellow in the taste than the smell, clay, a bit thin, pleasant, may be for someone who is not a red wine lover

Food to pair with this GSM: Charcuterie board, salumi and cheese, cold cuts, needs lighter food, grilled chicken, teriyaki chicken, Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, spicy pork Ramen, egg rolls, gyoza


Rating: 

• Joe: 6/10
• Carmela: 7/10

Which one of these are you finishing tonight?

• Carmela: Domaine Saint Gayan Trescartes Côtes du Rhône
• Joe: Domaine Saint Gayan Trescartes Côtes du Rhône

Taste profiles expected from GSM   40:50

• General 
  • Wine Folly: Raspberry, Blackberry, Rosemary, Baking Spices, Lavender
• Domaine Saint Gayan
  • WS: Mature, offering a plume of warmed cherry and blood orange puree, with sandalwood, red tea and dried garrigue notes. Shows energy, but you'll want to drink this up. Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre
  • SBJ.com: This blend boasts a medium body and a full fruity aroma featuring dried summer fruits, blackberries, dark plums and spice. I was impressed by the softness and depth of flavor of this wine.
• d'Arenberg The Stump Jump GSM 
  • WE: Ripe, fleshy blueberries and raspberries drive this red blend without too much oak getting in the way. There's an underbelly of flowers, cinnamon and peppery spice. The tannins are typically muscular, while the fruit is juicy, silky and fresh. Best Buys
  • MadWine: The nose is bursting with raspberry, strawberry, mulberry and spice. The palate is juicy and silken. Pure fruit, fresh acid and super supple tannins all in harmony.
• Les Alexandrins Terrasses de l’Eridan
  • WS: Unadorned cherry and raspberry puree notes stream through here, with light red licorice and bergamot accents along the edges.
  • Vine Pair: If you are in a wine shop or supermarket and see this wine, it works as a last minute pick up. It has balance, and dark general fruit, with good acidity and tannin. It is not going to knock anyone out of the park, but is a solid, easy drinking red for a wine table at a party, or maybe a gift for a host.

We are now GSM converts!

Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 43:15

Ok, so, Carmela, it is just about time for us to go, but before we do, we want to thank you very much for listening to us - AND if you haven’t done so yet, now would be the perfect time to subscribe to our podcast AND also a fantastic time to leave us a nice rating and review on our website or Apple podcasts or other podcast service - and it is an awesome and free way to support us and help us grow listeners.

We would also love to hear from you about a wine you would like us to taste and review. You can, leave a message for us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com, or you can just email us at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com and tell us about a wine you are curious about, or curious what we think of it. And, follow us on Instagram so you can see pictures of all of these wines we are tasting and reviewing. 

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Alright, with that, we are going to sign off, so thanks again, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.