Vine selection Q - warm, dry climate

[REDRUM]

We're going to be doing some home renovation soon and when that's done I have a cunning plan to plant a few vines in our small courtyard. By 'a few' I mean 3, because with spacing of 6' or so that's all that's going to fit.

My fantasy was originally to plant one Grenache, one Shiraz (Syrah) and one Mataro (Mourvedre) vine and make a tiny amount of blended wine from them - all those S Rhone varieties do very well around Adelaide & I'm a big fan of the wines.

Anyway, after some cursory background research it seems as though Mataro could be annoying to grow, mostly because it takes so long to be productive at all.

So, I'm keen to see whether people have any suggestions as to other vines they have grown successfully or think would do well here. The climate here is very much classic Mediterranean, hot dry summers, cool wet winters ... usual climate comparisons are with the very south of France, central Italy, parts of Spain, parts of California (San Luis Obispo??). And the soil at my place is sort of a sandy loam, fairly nutrient-poor.

Cheers!

 

[ColemanM]

So I just bought a cellar craft GSM wine kit with grape skins because I love this blend. Saw your post and got to thinking... What other Grenache Syrah blends are there? The only other one I could find was a carignan grape variety. Pretty horrible disease statistics though. Good luck

 

[REDRUM]

There are wineries in SA which use Graciano, Tempranillo, Zinfandel or Sangiovese in a blend with Grenache & Shiraz.

There is not much Zin grown in SA at all, which surprises me because I would assume that the climate would be perfect ... just a historical thing I guess.

Has anyone had any experience growing any of these varieties? I know each are going to have their quirks...! I suppose that's part of the fun...

 

[ColemanM]

Ok since nobody else chimed in... Have you thought about grafting? Since you only have room for three vines say your third vine could be Sangiovese since it is a vigorous vine and is know to grow in your area, then you could graft Zin on to it. Hope you figure something out and get a good blend

 

[REDRUM]

Thanks for the suggestion - I'm a fan of Sangiovese wines so if the vine grows vigorously that could be a great option.