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Tag Archives: Jumilla
Mourvèdre Monday #29: Merum 2009
A quick-hit #MourvedreMonday wine…
.Merum 2009 Monastrell – Jumilla
Dried cherry, raspberry, mossy earthiness and dried flowers. Rich, but with good acidity. This tasty and interesting little Jumilla is 85% Monastrell and 15% Syrah and well worth the $10.50 I paid for it. Grab a bottle if you come across it and let me know what you think.
Mourvèdre Monday #25: Luzon 2009 Jumilla
I posted a photo of this wine bottle recently (via my Instagram account), but never commented on the wine itself. It’s a 70/30 Monastrell/Syrah blend from the Jumilla region of Spain. It sells for around $8-10. The nose is fresh, bringing red fruit with an herbal edge. On the palate, it’s like a black cherry Jolly Rancher dropped in rock dust. It’s not going to knock your socks off, but it delivered more interestingness than I expected for $8. Try it.
And I dig the label with the overlapping L-U-Z-O-N…
Mourvèdre Monday #27: My New Favorite Monastrell
I originally declared 2010 to be the Year of Mourvèdre, but my love of the grape knows no bounds, calendrical or otherwise. Here in 2012, the posts don’t come as often as they used to, but in honor of my recent business trip to Spain, here’s a review of my new favorite Monastrell (the Spanish name for Mourvèdre).
This wine retails for around $10-12 and is a great intro into Monastrell if you’re new to it — or for those who know and love the grape, it’s a good bulk buy. Have you tried this wine before? Leave a comment.
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Search-friendly, cut-and-paste-friendly text: Olivares Altos de la Hoyas Monastrell 2008 Jumilla |Nose: Smoked cherries with a fresh vegetal note. Palate: High-toned blackberry fruit with good acidity and a touch of earthy minerality. Good, persistent finish. Overall: My new favorite Monastrell. Made my day. | Score: A-
Mourvedre Monday #26 (Tetra-Pak Edition): Y+B Monastrell
Welcome to the first tetra-pak edition of #MourvedreMonday. Yellow+Blue (Y+B) sells wine from organically grown grapes in environmentally-friendly 1-liter tetra-paks. (Yellow + Blue = Green. Get it?) They source wine from a number of locales, including Malbec and Torrontes from Argentina, Sauvignon Blanc from Chile, and this Monastrell from Spain. This is the first varietally-labeled Monastrell in tetra-pak that I’ve come across (and I’ve see a lot of Mourvèdre/Monastrell/Mataro). I have to admit, it was kinda weird pulling a carton out of my mini-cellar, but I got over that quick once I poured the wine.
Price: $12 for 1 liter
This wine was provided as a sample for review by the winery.
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Spicy berry fruit on the nose, with a dusty herbal character. Palate is full of sappy blackberry fruit, laced with exotic spice notes and a hint of smoked meat. A light tannic astringency on the reasonably lengthy finish. Definitely worth picking up if you want an inexpensive introduction to Monastrell or just want a tasty, fun-to-drink wine that fits a green lifestyle. B
UPDATE: Another review of this wine has gone up at The Passionate Foodie. He liked it, too. Check it out.
Mourvèdre Monday #6: Wrongo Dongo 2008
I intended to avoid Spain for this week’s Mourvèdre Monday. Three of the first 5 installments have been Spanish Monastrells and I wanted more variety. I had my sights set on opening either a Bandol or an Aussie bottle in my cellar. But I’ve been sick since last Monday and I’m just getting back to relative normalcy. I decided to open the cheapest bottle of Mourvèdre I have on hand, in case my palate wasn’t quite ready (it was fine). I know very little about this bottle other than it’s from the same producer as the Juan Gil 2007 I liked quite a bit. Oh, and it cost me less than six bucks so what did I have to lose? Next week I’ll do my best to bring something serious to the party.
Producer: Bodegas Juan Gil
Grapes: 100% Monastrell
Appellation: Jumilla (DO, Spain)
Vineyards: no info
Vintage: 2008
Winemaking: no info
Alcohol: 15%
Price: I paid $5.71 at Spec’s in Austin.
My tasting notes: On the nose it kind of pings around from Robitussin to earth & black pepper to blueberry-scented magic marker. On the palate it’s smooth-textured with dried cherry and blackberry fruit, a mineral component that makes me think of a wharf and a bit of a chocolate note at the end. Like many of the other reviews linked below, I get the black tea astringency. It’s kinda of like an unsweetened blackberry-flavored tea.
Overall impression: I don’t know that I’m really digging this one. If you’re looking for super-cheap bottles that aren’t bad, give this one a try. But for me, I’d rather drink something else. C
Free association:
More info:
88 points Jay Miller for Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.
Other reviews at Palate Match, Fermented Reviews, The Small Wine Review, CellarTracker (avg. 81 pts) and Cork’d.
Anybody know the story behind the name? If so, please share.
Mourvèdre Monday #4: Juan Gil 2007
This is the fourth installment of Mourvèdre Monday, VINEgeek’s yearlong deep-dive into the Mourvèdre/Monastrell/Mataro grape. Check out the other posts in the series here.
After I announced that 2010 would be The Year of Mourvedre here at VINEgeek Enterprises, I got lots of great recommendations from my fellow winos. This bottle was suggested by @Sonadora of Wannabe Wino blog.
Producer: Juan Gil
Grapes: 100% Monastrell (the Spanish name for Mourvèdre)
Appellation: Jumilla (say who-ME-ya)
Vintage: 2007
Vineyards: From estate vineyards of 40+ years of age. Soil: “shallow, chalky soils on a bed of limestone and rock”
Winemaking: 12 months in French oak barrels (not sure what % new)
Alcohol: 15%
Price: I paid $12 at Spec’s in Austin.
My tasting notes: Very deep color. On the nose I get dusty red and black fruit accented by a rich, chocolate/mocha note, mint and a spicebox character. There’s also a touch of greenness, as if you could smell the grape stems. In the mouth, it delivers ripe plummy/blackberry fruit, a brighter blueberry note and a touch of earth with chewy, grippy tannins in a full-bodied package. Enough acid on the finish and good, spicy length, though the alcohol can be felt in a sort of cool-mint kind of way. It really opens up with time in the glass and on the second day.
Overall impression: A rich, heady mouthful of flavor that avoids crossing the line into fruit bomb territory, yet delivers “oomph” for a reasonable price. B/B+
Free association: Something about this wine makes me think of Mr. T as B. A. Baracus. According to Wikipedia, in Spain he was known as Mario Baracus. Awesome.
More info:
This wine was scored 90 points by Josh Raynolds, for Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar.
Check out the chalky soil and gnarly vines (note: I don’t know for sure if this photo is of the vineyards used for this bottling or other Juan Gil bottles):
Mourvedre Monday #3: Casa Castillo 2007
I’m still sort of tip-toeing into this Mourvèdre Monday series. I’m saving the big guns for later in the year and I’m sticking with a bargain Spanish bottle again this week. This one got 90 points from Parker and Tanzer, so let’s check it out.
Producer: Casa Castillo
Grapes: 100% Monastrell (Mourvèdre)
Appellation: Jumilla (DO, Spain)
Vineyards: From dry-farmed estate vineyards on the valley floor and lower slopes, with sandy clay soils. The vines are relatively young (up to 22 years old) and are bush vines, not trellised (see photos below).
Vintage: 2007
Winemaking: Fermented with natural yeast. The wine spent six months in 3rd-year oak: 80% in 500-liter French oak barrels and 20% in 225-liter American oak barrels. (The latter size are the more common — these days anyway — Bordeaux-style “barriques”, the kind you probably have seen on a winery tour.)
Alcohol: 14%
Price: $9
My tasting notes: On the nose, I get bright berry fruit and spice, but also definite whiffs of horse stable and even body odor (thankfully fleeting). On the palate, the wine is high-toned with vibrant cherry, blueberry and raspberry flavors with a strong herbal edge, a bit of minerality, good acidity, and dry tannins. The herbal, high-acid character of this wine is almost Italianate to me. It really smoothes out nicely by the second glass and becomes almost sexy.
Overall impression: Very nice. I wasn’t sold on the first glass, but the second won me over. This wine is more high-toned and “fresh” than I expect from a Mourvèdre/Monastrell (especially Jumilla), but I really like it. A nice bargain wine, just give it some air. B+
Free association: Lois Lane as a centaur…
More info:
This wine scored 90 points from Parker and Tanzer. Meanwhile Gary V delivered a beatdown to this wine during his NYC week earlier this year, giving it a 68! (I bet it was a pop-n-pour situation.)
Photos of the vineyards that this bottle is sourced from:
