Monastrell is a grape I’ve been intrigued by lately, thanks to increasingly diverse expressions. For a long time, it was in my head epitomised by the friendly Lunatico Monastrell that features as one of SuperValu’s Signature Range, with its plump dark fruits and tannins smoothed by sweet spiced French oak. (It’s regularly on promotion, currently at €15 from €20 until March 20 in SuperValu’s Spanish wine sale.) This wine is produced by Bodegas Casa de la Ermita in DO Jumilla, a small but up-and-coming wine region in Murcia just inland from nearby Valencia.
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The Jumilla region in southeastern Spain is big red wine country. Hot and dry, it’s where the Monastrell grape thrives, accounting for about 80 percent of Jumilla’s vines. If you’re not familiar with Monastrell, it’s the grape known in France as Mourvèdre and is one of the mainstays of the Mediterranean wine world, where it is often blended with Syrah and Grenache.
Monastrell produces dark and concentrated wines, and the variety ripens beautifully in Jumilla. The region’s best wines are from higher-elevation vineyards, which benefit from cooling influences that provide balancing acidity.
That’s the case with Bodegas Olivares’s 2018 “Altos de la Hoya” Monastrell, a superb value at around $12. The grapes are grown in a vineyard that lies at about 2,700 feet and is farmed organically, with only native yeasts used in its fermentation. All of this results in a distinctive wine that really out-performs at this price and should be at the top of your list when it comes t