Lledoner Pelut

Identity

Lledoner Pelut is a Grenache Noir with hairs on it.

That is literally what defines it: a mutation of Grenache Noir distinguished from its parent by the heavy down on its young leaves. The name says so, in Catalan — lledoner is Grenache, pelut means hairy.

It closes the family of Grenache mutations this corpus publishes. Grenache Blanc and Grenache Gris are colour mutations; this one is a mutation of hairiness, which changes nothing about the berry. Four pages, a single variety in the geneticist's sense, and four distinct grapes in the cahiers des charges.

A variety you can only tell apart in the vineyard

That is this entry's peculiarity, and it is worth underlining. A Grenache Blanc is identifiable by eye: the berry is pale. A Lledoner Pelut is not — its bunch is Grenache Noir's. You tell it apart only by looking at the down on the underside of the young leaves.

A regulatorily distinct variety that only an ampelographer can identify on the vine: it says a great deal about the limits of morphological description, and about what genetic marking changed.

In the vineyard

Bud burst mid-season, ripeness late, vigour high — Grenache Noir's profile.

Pl@ntGrape sums it up as "behaviour identical to Grenache Noir except for an increased susceptibility" to certain problems. That is the only agronomic difference the source retains, and it is not a favourable one: the mutation brings no known advantage, only an added fragility.

Which raises the question this entry will not settle: why do the appellations distinguish it? No source opened here explains that.

In the glass

The full structure is filled in, which is rare in this pass: medium acidity, medium tannin, medium to full body, high alcohol. It is Grenache Noir's profile, with no divergence noted.

The descriptors on this entry are readings of the Grenache register, not quotations — no source attributes an aroma of its own to Lledoner Pelut, which is consistent with a mutation that does not touch the berry.

Where it is named

At Corbières and Minervois, a principal variety in both.

That is the most interesting thing about its position: two major Languedoc appellations raise it to the front rank, though it is indistinguishable from Grenache Noir in the glass. The reason is probably heritage — keeping a Catalan name in a Catalan blend — but this page will not assert that without a source.