Al-Muvedre Monastrell 2025
£11.75
The wine
The single wine of the Al-Muvedre project, and a benchmark for affordable, characterful Spanish red. Telmo Rodríguez and Pablo Eguzkiza make it from old bush-vine Monastrell on the chalky, sandy soils around Villena in Alicante, high above the Mediterranean.
Hand-picked and fermented with wild yeasts in tank, with no new oak to get in the way, it is pure, fresh and expressive: ripe blackberry and dark cherry, wild garrigue herbs and a gentle waft of spice, with a savoury, mineral edge. Lively acidity and fine, supple tannins keep it wonderfully drinkable.
A brilliantly versatile red for the table, at home with grilled and roast meats, lamb, charcuterie and hard cheeses. Serve at cool room temperature.
The producer
Al-Muvedre
View all Al-Muvedre winesAl-Muvedre is the Alicante chapter of Compañía de Vinos Telmo Rodríguez, one of the most influential names in modern Spanish wine. For decades, Telmo Rodríguez and his partner Pablo Eguzkiza have travelled the length of Spain to rescue neglected old vineyards and give its native grapes their voice back. Begun in 2001, Al-Muvedre is their love letter to the Mediterranean and to Monastrell.
The setting is Alicante, on Spain’s sun-soaked Levante coast and the spiritual home of Monastrell, the brooding grape the wider world knows as Mourvèdre. Gnarled old bush vines grow untrellised on poor, chalky and sandy soils under a hot, dry sky. It is a region with a storied past, once celebrated for its sweet wines, whose remarkable old vineyards had been all but forgotten until growers like Telmo began to seek them out.
The philosophy is refreshingly simple. Take exceptional old-vine fruit, pick it by hand, ferment with wild yeasts and let the wine rest quietly in tank rather than smother it in new oak. The result is honest and expressive, full of ripe dark berries, wild Mediterranean herbs and gentle spice, carried by fresh acidity and fine, supple tannins.
Year after year it remains one of Spain’s genuine bargains, a red of real character and sense of place that, in its makers’ own words, captures the spirit of the Mediterranean. It is also the ideal introduction to the Telmo Rodríguez way of thinking.
