Winemaker Notes
The wine displays a high-layered, intense red color with violet shades and offers a powerful, complex nose of red fruits and spices. Original and intriguing, it is well-structured, meaty, and balanced, with a very long and pleasant finish, making it a fresh and unique red wine. It pairs perfectly with game meat, creamy rices, stewed vegetables, mushrooms, poultry, casseroles, fish with sauce, smoked or cured cheeses, and grilled or barbecued meats.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The very expressive 2021 La Atalaya del Camino has notes of wild berries and lots of aromatic herbs, showy and open. It's a blend of 85% Garnacha Tintorera and 15% Monastrell, concentrated, ripe and heady, with 15% alcohol and flavors of black fruit in the finish.
Grenache thrives in any warm, Mediterranean climate where ample sunlight allows its clusters to achieve full phenolic ripeness. While Grenache's birthplace is Spain (there called Garnacha), today it is more recognized as the key player in the red blends of the Southern Rhône, namely Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes du Rhône and its villages. Somm Secret—The Italian island of Sardinia produces bold, rustic, single varietal Grenache (there called Cannonau). California, Washington and Australia have achieved found success with Grenache, both flying solo and in blends.
The Moors gave it the name, ‘Manxa,’ which fittingly means ‘parched earth.’ La Mancha, the largest Spanish wine producing region in all of Spain, is one of its hottest and driest. Sturdy and drought-resistant white varieietes like Airen, Viura and Verdejo thrive in this environment.