2020 Casa Castillo, La Tendida, Jumilla D.O., Spain.
The Casa Castillo label, imported by Eric Soloman’s European Cellars, is a well known and admired winery, famous for Monastrell, aka Mourvèdre, and I’ve been enjoying the wines for more than two decades. That said this was the first experience with this new La Tendida bottling, a blend of mostly Monastrell, but with a good dose of Garnacha or Grenache as we call it here in California, and it was a delicious and more subtle wine that the juicier (riper) entry level Casa Castillo crowd pleasers. This La Tendida comes from a special higher elevation vineyard and it is wonderfully aromatic and shows off a delicacy not usually seen here, making for a more stylish effort with dark red berries, strawberries, currants, baked cherries and dusty plums on the medium/full palate along with dried rosemary, lilacs, chalky stones, cedar, wild mint, pepper and a touch of feral earthiness. There’s a Gigondas meets Bandol like character here and this dark garnet wine has a nice smooth tannic structure and enjoys a fine cut of acidity, helping balance it out in impressive fashion. José Maria Vincente is a third generation owner and operator of Casa Castillo a farm that began as a rosemary plantation but one that has evolved into the preeminent estate in the DO of Jumilla. It was José Maria’s grandfather who originally purchased Casa Castillo in 1941, where there was already a winery, cellar and some scattered vineyards on the property that dated to the 1870s. Interestingly, they say, it was established by French refugees that were fleeing the plight of phylloxera in their native land. In 1985 José and his father began to replant the vineyards, later certified organic, and expand them with the goal of making higher quality wine on the property and in 1991 they bottled their first commercial vintage, and the rest they say is history, with the success that followed.
Winemaker Jose Maria Vicente, with this 2020 vintage, for the first time made his La Tendida, which replaces the Vino de Finca, but it is not just a new label, it is a wine from a select parcel with tthis cuvée being from of younger vines, 10 to 20 years old. The fruit comes from a particular terruño (terroir) with sandy clay-limestone soils along with a deep layer of gravel. Despite the younger average age of these vines and no change in the winemaking, Vicente believes, that this La Tendida, with Monastrell and Garnacha, is a more elegant, nuanced, and refined rendition of this parcel’s best soils, making this cuvée great addition and stellar value to the already outstanding lineup of Jumilla offerings here at Casa Castillo. The wines here at Casa Castillo are all fermented in either stainless steel tanks or concrete vats and pigeage is done by foot using an ever increasing amount of whole clusters, with up to 50% in certain wines and vintages. The aging is then done in a combination of cement, old foudres and 500L French oak demi-muids, which the concentrated old vine Mourvèdre (Monastrell) really likes being matured in. Jose Maria Vicente, a pioneer in all organics here, used all hand harvested grapes, 85% Monastell and 15% Garnacha, here, with partially de-stemmed clusters, allowing a natural yeast fermentation in concrete vats to take place. The maceration, 30% whole bunches and steams, is done after foot trodding the must and doing daily punch downs until dry and then the wine is pressed and racked to barrel, in this case, these were a combination of large foudre and 500L demi-muids, which were mainly for the Monastrell. So the La Tendida 2020 then saw a full 12 months in cask before blending and settling in tank, after which it was bottled, with this regime showing off loads of authentic character and transparency, it is a wine that doesn’t require much more cellar time, though I suspect it will continue to evolve well for many years to come.
($25 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive