Casa Castillo - Las Gravas Jumilla 2021 (750ml)
Price: $93.00
| Producer | Casa Castillo |
| Country | Spain |
| Region | Jumilla |
| Varietal | Monastrell |
| Vintage | 2021 |
| Sku | 8566 |
| Size | 750ml |
Wine Advocate: 98 Points
The 2021 Las Gravas contains grapes from a vineyard planted in 2006 (that already contributed to the 2020) and it has given the wine a fine-boned profile with more freshness and varietal Monastrell notes a rustic-elegant feeling. It keeps the incredible quality level of the 2020 with Jumilla typicity; it's Mediterranean powerful and energetic with balanced 15% alcohol and a chalky rocky stony sensation in the finish. This always contains some 8% to 12% Garnacha. Production has grown to 37905 (numbered) bottles. It was bottled in June 2023 as they did a longer élevage. This matured 100% in oak foudre; they abandoned the 500-liter barrels for this wine and for Pie Franco. 2021 was also an exceptional vintage at Casa Castillo quite similar to 2020. Winemaker and proprietor José María Vicente pays more and more attention to the last 15 days. In 2021 he got his biggest crop ever over 400000 kilos of grapes which translated into 300000 liters of wine (from 174 hectares so 2400 kilos per hectare still low yields). He likes bigger crops as it slows down the ripening and the wines have easy fermentations and more freshness with great purity and more precision but a lack of reductive aromas. There's a little more concentration here compared with 2020 a balanced and textured year; 2021 is a little more varietal classical Jumilla and Casa Castillo powerful and elegant. In cold years he uses more full clusters and in warm ones he uses less; in 2021 he used a little less than in 2020 as the summer of 2021 was slightly warmer than in 2020. The 2022 and 2023 vintages are not as homogeneous and easygoing as 2020 or 2021; in 2022 they lost 70% of the crop and 2023 was a nightmare of a harvest with four heat waves and rain that halted the harvest which was almost a completely different harvest when they resumed... The vines planted in the last seven years are getting settled and they are still preparing to continue restructuring their vineyards uprooting the vines from the valley floor and going for the slopes being more focused about the place than the age of the vines. All their vineyards and wines are certified organic. Published: Jan 18 2024
