'La Montesa' Garnacha 2018
$60.00 RRP
La Montesa is the Palacios' name for the shovel-nosed hill-slope above the town of Alfaro from which their main wines are selected. Three passes yield the Viura blanco, the joven tinto 'La Vendimia' and its big sister 'La Montesa' which is aged in older French oak. It's just a little 'more' than La Vendimia...more savoury, more mineral, more structured, yet still extremely gentle and open-weave. It's all things to all people - affordable to quaff, stylish enough for a dinner party.
98% Garnacha, finally, with a touch of field blend white! A very big and high quality harvest from the warmest year on record - wet winter then warm and dry summer and dry harvest. The wine has great phenolic maturity and a salty herb-sour edge to intense almost tarry dark Garnacha. The palate has fantastic acid-tannin reach which drags clay spice and floral red berry along and along and along... It's long, complex, fresh, vital and complete.