2011 1771, Old Vine Monastrell, Bodegas los Frailes, Valencia, Spain
About this WINE
Bodega los Frailes
Valencia
East-facing eponymously, and Mediterranean of climate and culture, the appellation of Valencia produces wines from a diverse array of styles and grapes, including, for the white varieties, Merseguera, Malvasía, Pedro Ximénez, Moscatel Romano, Planta Fina, Macabeo, Chardonnay, and to a lesser extent, Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon; and, for the red grapes, Monastrell, Garnacha Tintorera, Garnacha Tinta, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Bobal, Syrah.
Wine is bred in the bone here, and at all price points. Two of the most exciting bodegas are Bodega Mustiguillo and El Angosto, which certainly deserve to be better-known.
Mourvèdre
Mourvèdre, aka Monastrell in Spain, is a common blending partner of Syrah and Grenache (aka Garnacha in Spain). In Australia and California it can also appear under the name Mataro.
Mourvèdre's bastion in France is Bandol, where it reigns supreme in the red blends and yielding a savoury, gamey, herby wine. It also commonly features in Southern Rhône, Languedoc & Rousillon blends.
The grape needs a warm climate to ripen fully. Its stronghold in Spain are the appellations along the south-east Mediterranean(Murcia, Jumilla, Bullas), where it produces rosé, dry red and sweet fortified wines. Monastrell has played a significant part in Spain’s vinous heritage; it nurtures wines that are deep in colour and richly tannic, sometimes overbearing in their intensity and concentration
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Description
1771 is the top red from Los Frailes, a pure, old-vine Monastrell from a single vineyard, Parcela Rizabal, on chalky soils named after the date when the property was created. The grapes fermented with indigenous yeasts in a stainless-steel vat, went through malolactic fermentation in cement and matured in 700-liter French oak barrels for one year. The nose is clean and delineated, with a mixture of elegance and rusticity, wild berries, tree bark and some violets in the background; quite alluring.
Casa los Frailes is an old property in Fontanars dels Alforins (Valencia) that used to belong to the Jesuitas monk, hence the name "the house of the monks." It was bought in 1771 by the Velázquez family who still own and run it. In 1999 they started a winery there. They are organically-certified since 2001 and are converting to biodynamic viticulture and are experimenting with aging the wines in buried terra-cotta amphorae.
They have 130 hectares of vineyards inside their 165-hectare estate which is 80 kilometers away from the Mediterranean sea at 600-700 meters altitude where the soils are a mixture of clay, chalk and sand with plenty of stones and gravel. All vineyards are dry-farmed, with half of them head-pruned (old Monastrell) and the rest younger and trellised.
Luis Gutierrez eRobertParker.com
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