4 Kilos Vinicola • 4 Kilos 2020

Der beste Wein Mallorcas und einer der besten Spaniens

4 Kilos 2020

4 Kilos Vinicola

Mallorca, Spanien

Wine Advocate (Parker/Gutiérrez), April 2022

97/100

The eponymous red 2020 4 Kilos is a delicate, pure Callet bottled at 12% alcohol from 20- to 50-year-old, organically farmed vines in different vineyards on call vermell red soils in the village of Felanitx. It fermented in equal parts in stainless steel and oak vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in third- and fourth-use 600-liter Allier oak barrels for 12 months. It's perfumed and elegant, with notes of dried rose petal and talcum powder, perfumed and spicy, with orange peel freshness. This is serious and balanced, not exuberant, it's even a little shy, insinuating and tasty in a very subtle way. It's clean and precise. It takes over your taste buds in a quiet and harmonious way. The tannins are very fine and give it a chalky texture and a tasty finish. This has to be their finest vintage to date. Bravo! 16,000 bottles and 300 magnums were produced. It was bottled in February 2022.

To me, 4 Kilos is the leading quality producer in the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. I didn't have the chance to visit them or taste with them this time, and when I asked winemaker Francesc Grimalt what they were up to, he said they used "insect biocontrol plus microbiology through nematodes." That got me intrigued and scratching my head, but for a number of reasons, I didn't have the chance to dig deeper into it, so it's pending for next time...

The winery produces some 80,000 bottles from its roughly 13 hectares of organically farmed vineyards in the island. 2019 was a dry year in Mallorca, the local varieties behaved better (no surprise!) under the hydric stress conditions and yields were around 30% lower and the wines concentrated. 2020 was better, with plenty of rain until June, which provided very good reserves for the plants and the drier end of the season and allowed for proper ripening and healthy grapes. It was a very good year, like in many other places in the Mediterranean. 2021 was again a little drier than the average and a little warmer.

Drink: 2022 - 2030