Casa Castillo Las Gravas Jumilla 2023
£54.95
The wine
Deep red in colour. On the nose, aromas of cherries and raspberries with layers of black pepper, balsamic and Mediterranean herbs. On the palate, well integrated, chalky tannins are balanced with a vibrant freshness leading to a powerful yet refined finish.
Mourvedre, known in Jumilla as Monastrell, with a little Grenache. Each variety was picked by hand and vinified separately, fermented on indigenous yeasts in traditional underground stone lagares with a quarter whole bunches and manual pigeage, held between 30 and 32C. Malolactic happened in foudre, and the wine then spent twenty months in a mix of 5,000 and 500-litre foudres. Jose Maria Vicente's grandfather bought the estate in 1941; replanting began in 1985 and it now runs to 170 hectares.
The producer
Casa Castillo
View all Casa Castillo winesHigh on the limestone slopes of Jumilla, in the sun-baked interior of Murcia, Casa Castillo is one of Spain's great champions of Monastrell. This is old-vine country, where gnarled bush vines endure fierce heat and drought to give reds of extraordinary depth and character. It is a landscape as unforgiving as it is beautiful.
The estate's treasure is a plot of ungrafted, pre-phylloxera Monastrell planted in deep sand, the source of the legendary Pie Franco. Alongside it sit old-vine Garnacha and a range of characterful, age-worthy reds, each grown on the estate's stony hillsides.
Pure, powerful and astonishing value, these are among the finest wines of southern Spain. They combine southern warmth with a savoury, mineral freshness that sets them apart.
Decant the top wines and serve at cool room temperature, and taste the heat and stone of Jumilla.
