Casa Castillo - Las Gravas Jumilla 2020 (750ml)
Price: $100.00
| Producer | Casa Castillo |
| Country | Spain |
| Region | Jumilla |
| Varietal | Monastrell |
| Vintage | 2020 |
| Sku | 4959 |
| Size | 750ml |
Wine Advocate: 98 Points
The phenomenal 2020 Las Gravas was produced with 92% Monastrell from 30- to 40-year-old vines on north-facing gravel soils (hence its name) complemented with 8% Garnacha. It fermented with 30% full clusters and indigenous yeasts in underground stone lagares and matured in a combination of 500-liter barrel and 5000-liter foudres for 16 months. It has classical parameters 14.5% alcohol a pH of 3.47 and 4.87 grams of acidity per liter. The wine is super perfumed and floral really showy elegant nuanced and refined with the notes of pine needles and wet soil much subtler than in the 2019. There is an ethereal character to the 2020s that I haven't found in any previous vintage here but at the same time the wines are very mineral and have lots of energy and light. There is precision cleanliness definition and elegance like I hadn't seen before and refined tannins with a pungent mineral sensation in the textured finish. This is an incredible wine for the price asked. 35500 bottles produced. There was a single bottling in February 2022. I tasted the 2019 and 2020 vintages from Casa Castillo the leading producer in Jumilla and the Mediterranean and among the best in Spain. 2020 was a classic Mediterranean vintage there with a rainy spring and very dry and hot summer. Budding and harvest happened on normal dates. A rain of 40 liters per square meter at the end of August changed everything slowing down ripening raising the relative humidity of the environment lowering night temperatures and directing the harvest toward excellence. Their 2020s represent the finest wines they have produced since they started in 1991. Even the musts showed balance and elegance and that continued throughout the fermentation and upbringing of the wines that are elegant and fine with less color and extraction than normal but with great character and depth. It has the Casa Castillo style austere mineral with an absence of fruit with depth and character. Furthermore all the labels also changed to a more stylish image with the 2020 vintage. 2020 is an exceptional vintage here the finest they have ever produced. As for 2019 it started off as a typical Mediterranean vintage with a rainier winter than usual and a very dry and hot growing season. But then tremendous rains on September 13 (220 liters in one day!) caused by a DANA storm halted harvesting for a week which made for a completely atypical vintage and changed the style of the wines toward lighter and more fruit-driven Monastrell with an elegant character. The Syrah and Garnacha were harvested before the rain. To compensate the Monastrell was destemmed 100% and they did a softer vinification and a shorter élevage trying to balance the wines. It's a transition vintage from the extraordinary 2018 and the greatest 2020 that they resolved quite nicely. The young 2021s show a little more concentration a serious vintage in the style of 2018. They are slowly replacing the sandier vineyards from the valley floor toward slopes on degraded tosca limestone soils. All of their 174 hectares of vineyards and their wines are certified organic from the 2019 vintage. Well done!
