2022 4 Monos, Tinto GR-10, Vinos de la Sierra de Gredos, Spain.
This pretty Grenache (Garnacha) based GR-10 Tinto is 4 Monos’ outrageously good basic cuvée, again its a wine that seduces the senses, with a delicacy of perfume, a beautiful ruby color and is generous on the perfectly balanced medium bodied palate with vinous red fruits, subtle spice, mineral tones and lingering florals. Over the last three or four vintages, this GR-10 has really excelled and this 2022, joins 2018 in being one of the best to date, again with its heavenly nose of red berry and liquid flowers that leads to a silken layering of bright plum, pomegranate, strawberry and crushed raspberry fruits, as well as having an array of sweet and savory herbs, briar notes and lavender. Coming from mostly decomposed granite and vines that range from 15 to 100 years old, this all organic and natural red was hand crafted using about 88% Garnacha, 10% Cariñena and 2% Syrah, which was cold macerated, 100% wild yeast fermented with at least 50% whole cluster depending on vintage. The juice is left on the skins for close to three weeks before being gently pressed and racked to used barrels where it aged nearly seven months in the oak, after which the wine was blended then rested another 2 months in concrete and steel vats. 4 Monos, which was founded by four friends back in 2010, all native to the Sierra de Gredos wine region in the mountains above Madrid and famous for rugged old vine Garnacha, consists of winemakers Javier García (formerly the head winemaker at iconic Bodegas Jiménez-Landi), Laura García, wine-lover David Velasco and local vineyard owner David Moreno, who make beautifully translucent and perfumed wines, like this Tinto GR-10, which shows off Grenache in a very distinctive fashion, and I highly recommend chasing their wines down.
In recent years, as I’ve mentioned here at Grapelive, the Sierra de Gredos has become one of the wine world’s hot spots with top producers, like Comando G and the mentioned Bodegas Jiménez-Landi, led by Dani Landi who is maybe the best known of the superstars here that crafts Garnachas in the same league as Chateau Rayas of Chateauneuf du Pape fame, and 4 Monos, all being ones to look for, especially if you’ve not explored the wines from this special place. The Sierra de Gredos DO appellation, with its dry Mediterranean/Continental climate is set in a mountain range that spreads over parts of three distinct terroirs, all being extreme making working these ancient vines incredibly hard, these subzones include Méntrida, Vinos de Madrid and Castilla y León, which sit between 600 and 1200 meters in elevation, a climate that sees huge changes of temperature between day and night allowing for fantastic ripe flavor development, but with good acidity retention and restrained character. The old bush vines are planted on complex soils that are made up of sand, granite and schist which share this arid, sleepy and remote location with smattering of olive, evergreen, almond, and chestnut trees along with aromatic scrub brush, chamomile, and wildflowers, that all seem to influence the wines and make them the beguiling lovelies there are, as this stellar vintage of 4 Monos displays with a flourish of expression, subtle earthiness and fabulous length. This GR-10 Tinto really delivers for the price, I am always amazed at the depth and clarity in this wine, it is always a guilt free treat to open this bottling, the quality for the price ratio here is absurdly good with this vintage in particular performing beyond my already high expectations. There’s a lot to love from this region and I will be continuing to explore the wines from here in the mountainous Sierra de Gredos, as well as keeping an ye on these fabulous 4 Monos offerings.
($28 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive