Mesta Garnacha Uclés 2024
£9.75
The wine
A juicy, fleshy unoaked red showing great purity and typicity from high-altitude Garnacha vines in the heart of Spain. Expressive, well-defined notes of rich red berried fruit and hints of violet are supported by supple tannins and excellent persistence.
Garnacha probably originated in Aragon before spreading across the Mediterranean, and it thrives in dry, hot, high places. At Ucles it gives generous red fruit and a warm, spicy finish with the pale colour typical of the variety. Organic, unoaked, and made for drinking rather than keeping.
The producer
Mesta
View all Mesta winesMesta is a range of organic varietal wines from Ucles in Castilla-La Mancha, made from vineyards on the slopes of the Altomira range at 700 to 900 metres.
The name refers to the Honrado Concejo de la Mesta, the powerful medieval guild of sheep farmers that controlled transhumance across Castile from the thirteenth century, driving flocks along protected drove roads between summer and winter pasture. Those routes, the canadas reales, still cross this country.
Castilla-La Mancha's dry heat and low humidity make organic growing considerably easier than in northern Europe, since fungal disease pressure is minimal, and much of Spain's organic vineyard area is here. Altitude supplies the acidity that the latitude would otherwise deny, and the wines are made in stainless steel for immediate, unencumbered fruit.
