FRENCH winemakers, in their full-on selling mode, love to tell a story in which they serve their own invariably modest wares along with some competitors’ expensive, highly rated bottles. Everybody loves the expensive wines on first taste, but at the end of the meal, the winemakers recount with pride, the other guys’ bottles are still three-quarters full while their own have been drained dry and second bottles opened.

The point? Just because a wine is immediately likable doesn’t mean it will remain pleasing over the long haul.

This tale may have achieved all-star status among marketing clichés, but it nonetheless applies particularly well when assessing grenache wines. Few grapes make wines as immediately pleasing as grenache. A first glass envelops you in its rich, powerfully fruity embrace. It’s that tricky second glass where the measure of the wine can be taken.

That glass will reveal whether the initial blast of fruit was structured in a way that will refresh, invigorate and energize, or whether it will simply wear you out. The fatigue factor is often a problem with grenache.