2017 4 Monos, Garnacha, GR10 Tinto, Sierra de Gredos, Vinos de Madrid, Spain.
The new vintage of 4 Monos, floral and fresh, takes over where the last vintage left off, taking this up and coming winery in the Sierra de Gredos D.O. up a notch, with this new and beautiful 2017 GR10 Tinto exploding in glass with Garnacha (Grenache) purity and charm. This year’s version shows the delicate side of the grape, but still with expressive quality and complexity of form, this is a ripe and smooth wine that certain impresses on the medium full palate with raspberry, plum, strawberry, pomegranate and dusty red currant fruits along with smooth tannin, bright spices, herb, anise and a light earthiness, stoniness and mineral tones. The Sierra de Gredos, made famous in recent years by the likes of Daniel Landi, Comando G, these guys and girl at 4 Monos and Alfredo Maestro, is a mountain range that spreads over parts of three appellations – Méntrida, Vinos de Madrid, and Castilla y León – and sits between 600 and 1,200 meters in elevation, only a short way west of Madrid itself. These old bush vines planted on sand, granite, and schist make for some amazing and expressive Garnacha, but with lively acidity and delicacy, Especially when done by the names mentioned and these 4 Monos, Javier Garcia (also the head winemaker at Méntrida the locally iconic Bodegas Jiménez-Landi), co-winemaker Laura Robles, wine-lover David Velasco, and vineyard holder David Moreno. This is a micro label, made by friends and with passion for place, with their wines, like this one, being lovingly crafted and being allowed to speak in a soft voice, I highly recommend them.
This delicious Garnacha comes, as per normal here, from mostly old head trained (En Vasco/En Gobolet) vines between about 30 and 85 years old set on mostly decomposed granite soils at about 800 meters up in the Sierra de Gredos, all within the Vinos de Madrid DO appellation and comprised of all organic 85% Garnacha, 10% Cariñena (Carignan), 3% Morenillo (a rare native grape) and about 2% Syrah. This high elevation adds freshness of detail and the continental climate, semi arid, adds to the concentration and supple mouth feel, especially so in this vintage, along with heightened aromatic beauty. As mentioned in my prior reviews and reports on this winery, 4 Monos use an old school or traditional minimalist natural winemaking approach, exclusively employing wild yeasts and whole bunches in the fermentation, foot-treading the grapes for careful extraction, with very little sulfur added. This vivid ruby/garnet and stem influenced GR10 Tinto village wine saw between 21-40 days on the skins through primary then it gently pressed and raised in 300 & 600 liter casks, plus a 4500L foudre for 7 months, always aging their wines in well seasoned old French barrels then racked off to concrete tank, usually about 2 months to settle before bottling. Drinking like a nice Pinot Noir, as this wine tends to do, its silken texture is very pleasing, and though not flashy it seduces the senses, fully opening to a wine that could easily sell for twice the price. Not a lot of these wines are made, and their importer Jose Pastor Selections has it highly allocated, so you’ll need to be diligent to find them, but they are worth it, especially this one that adds kirsch and lavender on the finish.
($25 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive