Tag Archives: Monastrell

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 Roundup: February 2013

It’s the first #MourvedreMonday of the month, so here’s a roundup of Mourvèdre-related interestingness from the past month: February, the dwarf month. (I wonder if someday, February will be downgraded from full month status to “dwarf”, like poor ole Pluto.)

It’s intensely-flavoured, velvety wine, with aromas that subliminally hint at 6B pencils, Parade Gloss boot polish, and freshly-polished horse tack.  Its fruits are somewhere between the rooty-fruity fragrance of borscht – cool beetroot soup with yoghurt – and the meaty twang of blueberry.  Its flavours are somewhere between those fleeting notions, inked with the reek of times and tastes past: it’s nostalgic stuff, with soft tannins that remind me of the grainy images in old movies.  It’s never heavy, jammy, or gloopy. It’s the sort of red I can drink in the morning, without food, just for its powerful memory triggers.  I could have it instead of lunch, or with some, in which instance Wah Hing tea-smoked duck comes immediately to mind.  I could have it in the afternoon, with or without Alison Paxton’s exquisite Kangarilla Creamery goat cheese from next door, and then, come to think of it, I could have it with dinner, with dribbly lamb cutlets and mash.  In other words,  I recommend it.  Trust Unca Phil.

  • The Reverse Wine Snob tasted and liked the Tarima 2011 Monastrell, a $5.99 Costco find.
  • The March 31, 2013 Wine Spectator failed to call out a single varietal Mourvèdre in it’s annual California Rhone review. The full listing of 600+ wines with scores is available here. The highest scoring varietal Mourvèdre — if you’re into scores, that is — is the Cypher Mourvèdre Paso Robles El Pelon 2009 (90, $55). They made up for mostly snubbing Mourvèdre by running a Domaine Tempier/Bandol feature in the same issue. (I’ll not link to it because it’s behind a paywall.)
  • Speaking of Bandol, La Vigne reports that 4 hectares of Bandol AOC vineyard land is threatened by construction of a new stadium (unless my French is even weaker than I thought).

We can’t end on that note, so I’ll have to sneak back into the end of January for this…

Laya 2010

I tasted an interesting little wine recently, the Bodegas Atalaya Laya 2010 from Spain’s D.O. Almansa, a blend of 70% Garnacha Tintorera (which is Alicante Bouschet) and 30% our good friend Monastrell. I didn’t record any tasting notes, but I quite enjoyed it and thought it had a lot going for it at around $10. Wine Enthusiast names this a Best Buy in this Stars of Southern Spain article. (They mistakenly – I think – list it as mostly Garnacha rather than Garnacha Tintorera. It is confusing because the label says Tintorera, but the website says Garnacha. I choose to trust the label.) Also, check out this post on the wine at the Excellent Everyday Wines blog.

While it’s only 30% Mouvèdre/Monastrell, let’s make it today’s Mourvèdre Monday recommendation.

 

Image is of 2011, but looks the same as 2010. (source)

Asimov Tastes Monastrells

A must-read for #TeamMourvedre / #TeamMonastrell geeks, like myself.* (It’s from last week, but I decided to wait to post it until today for a little Mourvèdre Monday action.

As a result my expectations were not high, so I was pleasantly surprised by how many of these wines I liked. Naturally, we found a few in the thick-and-jammy style, but they were far and away the exceptions. Many more of the wines seemed to possess an earthy, distinctly Spanish point of view. That is to say, they were full of dark flavors reminiscent, perhaps, of plums and licorice, but without the brooding, sometimes savage character of Bandol.

 

 

*Watch out for the NYTimes paywall. I’ve been reading so much of Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight blog this election season that I’d reach my limit of free articles, so I had to switch computers to read the Monastrell article.

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.

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.

Tetra-pak

 

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 #24: Castaño Hecula 2005

Back to Spain for Mourvèdre Monday. This one’s from Bodegas Castaño, one of the biggest producers of Monastrell in Yecla, in southeastern Spain. This wine got 90+ points from Parker for 5 straight vintages, including this one. Let’s see what’s up.

Producer: Bodegas Castaño

Grapes: 100% Monastrell

Appellation: Yecla

Vineyards: From 30+ year old vines in two vineyards: Las Gruesas and Pozuelo. Both with soils of sand, clay and limestone.

Vintage: 2005

Winemaking: 6 months of aging. It’s not clear from tech sheet in what vessel, but I would guess tank or neutral oak.

Alcohol: 14.5%

Price: Around $12

Tasting notes: Dusty fruit on the nose playing second fiddle to dried flowers and a sweaty, meaty aroma. I catch a fleeting licorice note as well. On the palate there are rich blackberry and red fruit flavors with an interesting mossy background note. Finishes short and dry with a little heat.

Overall impression: Some intriguing elements that don’t quite come together into a harmonious whole as well as I would like. Still an nice bottle that I enjoyed spending the evening with. And a nice value at around $12. B

Free association:

More info:

90 points from Parker and Tanzer. Parker gave this wine 90 or 91 points in vintages 2002-2006.

Jeff over at Viva La Wino reviewed this one last year and loved it.