Casa Castillo Pie Franco Monastrell, Jumilla

Casa Castillo Pie Franco Monastrell is hewn of concentrated fruit from 75 year vines, planted on calcareous soils of sand and clay, hand-picked and fermented in stone lagars where extraction is achieved by foot treading, with whole-bunches intact. Élévage takes place in neutral 500L French demi-muids. A wine that consistently scores in the high 90’s, this received a 96 in the Wine Advocate and 95 from Vinous in accordance with its reputation as one of Spain’s finest wines and arguably, the world’s greatest example of Monastrell/Mourvèdre/Mataro. The fruit is of a darker persuasion, with scents of black rock, cinder, clove and rosemary to accompany. As always, despite the capacious nature of the wine, there is an uncanny stream of pungent mineral freshness, beautifully articulated tannins and the breadth of larger format wood, tucking in the seams and towing the flavours long.