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91POINTS
16¾/20
Pepe Mendoza Monastrell Giró Alicante Bouschet 2020
Alicante, Valencia and Murcia, SpainYou have to love a winery’s whose mission statement is more or less: “We can afford to make a little or lose a little, but we can’t afford to sit pat.” Pepe Mendoza and his wife Pepa run Casa Agrícola. Mendoza spent 25 years as the winemaker at Enrique Mendoza, one of the most important wineries in the DO Alicante, before starting up his own winery to pursue the full potential of Spain’s East Coast, and use the most sustainable agricultural techniques. The Tinto is a 70/25/5 blend of local Valencia grapes monastrell, giró, and alicante bouschet. The fruit is grown using both biodynamic and organic farming methods. The whole grapes, bunches, and stems are included in the tank fermentation to protect its juicy fruit characters. Native yeasts are used for fermentation, and it is aged for six months in French oak barrels. His wines have been described by Scott Scott Wasley of The Spanish Acquisition, a specialist importer and wholesale distributor of Spanish and Portuguese wines and spirits, as having a duality. DO Alicante is part coastal and part inland high country, and Pepe harnesses both. Some wines are Marina, meaning wines from the coastal strip, fresh, salty and light. Some are from 100km inland in the upper reaches of Rio Vinalopó. You feel the sun and light of the Mediterranean, salt, and balsamic scrub, and everything is effortless and deft. These are small artisanal production, minimum intervention wines conceived for and defined by Mediterranean freshness. Wild, free and delicious.Tasted: 21 December 2022Tasted by: Anthony GismondiPrices:| BC | $31.99 | 750ml | select private retailers, restaurants |
Blend: Monastrell - Giró - Alicante BouschetUPC: 8437017953036
