Casa Castillo Monastrell, Jumilla, Spain

卡斯蒂洛酒莊慕合懷特紅葡萄酒

點擊次數(shù)：13454

The perfumed, floral and elegant 2021 Monastrell has 15% Garnacha (the maximum allowed if the wine is called Monastrell), as it's from a year that had more Garnacha vines, and he keeps planting the variety in the property because it gives the blend more elegance and freshness. The Monastrell matured in used barrels for eight to nine months, and the Garnacha matured in concrete. It's juicy and tasty, with fine-grained tannins and 14.5% alcohol but with great balance. It's Mediterranean with elegance. Great value. 190,000 bottles produced.

The 2020 Monastrell is pure Monastrell in this exceptional vintage for the grape (in previous years it had up to 20% Garnacha, but there was little Garnacha in 2020). The grapes come from sandy vineyards on the valley floor, and they fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and a shortish maceration. The wine matured in 500-liter oak barrels and 5,000-liter oak vats for nine months. In 2020, there were more grapes from old vines that were used before for the Vino de Finca, which was discontinued. This wine is very aromatic, elegant, expressive and reaching a level I have not seen before in this wine. It's refreshing, light, balanced, nuanced, with velvety tannins and very clean, really transcending its price point. Balanced is the word, and it's also available and affordable and sets the tone for the 2020s. 186,000 bottles produced. There are different lots of this wine from the same master blend. I tasted the first bottling from October 2021.

The entry-level red, the old Monastrell, has been reverted to the varietal name, even if in 2019 it has some 15% Garnacha because it was a very good year for the variety (because it was harvested before the rain). As with the other wines, I had the chance to compare the 2019 Monastrell with the 2020. This 2019 fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and matured in 500-liter barrels and 5,000-liter oak foudres for 10 months. It has an expressive nose of Mediterranean herbs and a combination of ripeness and lightness, a little in the style of 2016, a little more fruit-driven. They had to sort and discard and produced less wine. It's medium-bodied and has very good balance and fine tannins. 160,000 bottles produced. I tasted the September 2020 bottling, but all the bottlings are from the same master blend.

The 2017 Monastrell has some 12% Garnacha, and in 2018, it will probably have almost 20% Garnacha; at that point, they will remove the Monastrell name from the label and sell the wine as Casa Castillo, with no varietal mentioned. They have decided that the blend of Monastrell with Garnacha makes sense, so they's been increasing the percentage of Garnacha in their vineyards and reducing the Syrah, a variety they think makes less sense on their property. This has notes of fresh fruit with a spicy touch and is quite pure, not reflecting heat at all. The palate is juicy, vibrant and tasty, with super fine tannins and a spicy finish. A blend of 20-something plots, this wine reflects the general character of the estate. It has 15% alcohol, reflecting the natural conditions, but with an incredible balance that makes the alcohol feel perfectly integrated. A true bargain in its finest vintage to date. They produced around 186,000 bottles of this wine. The same blend is bottled throughout the year. What I tasted was bottled in January 2019.

The first wine in the range is the 2016 Monastrell, which in reality contains some 8% combination of Garnacha and Syrah, cropped from a more continental, cooler and dry vintage. Like all the wines from the property, it fermented with indigenous yeasts, in this case with grapes from different plots, and matured in used oak barrels for eight to nine months. Juicy, primary, incredibly fresh and with a vertical palate, longer than wider, like a hypothetical blend of 2013 and 2015, cool but dry. This is always a great value, even more so in 2016. 160,000 bottles produced from a single blend that is bottled throughout the year.