Brilliant Single Vineyard Monastrell from Alicante

Estrecho 2015

Enrique Mendoza

Alicante, Spanien

Wine Advocate #234, Dezember 2017 (Parker/Gutierrez)

95/100

The 2015 Estrecho, their flagship single vineyard Monastrell from a place called Estrecho de Pipa in the village of Villena at 700 meters above sea level where the soils are rich in sand. The vines are dry-farmed, organic and head pruned. The wine matured in French barriques for 15 months. It was harvested when the grapes still keep the freshness. The year can be a little austere, not as ripe as 2014, perhaps similar to 2010. It’s not an immediate wine, it’s a little closed, but has incredible inner power and depth. It has the Mediterranean herbs, hints of tree bark and fine-grained tannins with a long, mineral finish. I believe this is going to age magnificently and for a very long time. 5,500 bottles produced. It was bottled in April 2017.

There is a new offspring from Enrique Mendoza, Pepe Mendoza's personal project called Casa Agricola Pepe Mendoza (with wines produced exclusively with Mediterranean grape varieties) that starts in 2016/2017, of which I could preview some of the first, still unbottled wines. There will be some small production lots of very personal wines from organically grown grapes produced in the most natural way as possible, totaling 100,000 bottles. In the future Enrique Mendoza will be the project of Julia¡n Mendoza and his brother Pepe will have his Casa Agricola project.

There is a new Mediterranean red blend from their estate vineyards and many of the existing labels have disappeared, as they move away from French varieties, especially Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. When I tasted with him he was ecstatic about the quality of the just-finished 2017 vintage, which he said is the best they have done in 25 years. There will be some new wines in 2017, a white La Tremenda (25,000 bottles) produced a blend of Macabeo with 30% Moscatel and a white Santa Rosa. 5,000 bottles of a white Moscatel.

Monastrell

Raymond Usseglio • Chateauneuf du Pape la Part des Anges 2016

77.00 €

Enrique Mendoza • Estrecho 2015

24.90 €

28.90 €

Enrique Mendoza Las Quebradas 2015

24.40 €

Vegalfaro • Syrah Pago de los Balagueses 2015

19.70 €