winemaker's notes:
Number 35 on the Wine.com 100 of 2007!
"The 2005 Altos de la Hoya Monastrell "Ungrafted Old Vines" is a perennial Best Buy in this journal. Purple in color, the wine offers up a nearly exotic nose (perhaps due to wild yeast fermentation) of earth, minerals, blueberries, and blackberries. This medium to full-bodied effort possesses layers of sweet, ripe fruit, and soft tannins yet is surprisingly elegant. Drink this tasty wine over the next 2-3 years."
-Wine Advocate
"From ungrafted old vines. Deep ruby. Ripe, powerful scents of blackberry, cassis and candied plum, with a bit of Garnacha in the blend seeming to brighten the darker fruit character. Fat and lush, with deep, sweet blackcurrant and blackberry flavors and no rough edges. Finishes dense, fresh and long, with a repeating blackberry note. This has the concentration and sappy texture of a much more expensive wine."
-International Wine Cellar