Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2001 Hecula (4,500 cases) was fashioned from 100% Monastrell (Mourvedre), non-irrigated, 40-year old vines. It was bottled with neither fining nor filtration after spending eight months in used French and American barrels. This amazing red possesses sweetness, suppleness, and superb purity, no small accomplishment for the normally astringent, tough-textured Mourvedre. Notes of graphite, blackberries, cassis, leather, barbecue spice, and smoke are followed by an earthy, rich, full-bodied, silky-textured wine that caresses the palate. It should drink well for 4-5 years. This is a cutting edge effort from one of Spain's backwater, but soon to be famous appellations.
Spanish red wine is known for being bold, heady, rustic and age-worthy, Spain is truly a one-of-a-kind wine-producing nation. A great majority of the country is hot, arid and drought-ridden, and since irrigation has only been recently introduced and (controversially) accepted, viticulture has sustained—and flourished—only through a great understanding of Spain’s particular conditions. Large spacing between vines allows each enough resources to survive and as a result, the country has the most acreage under vine compared to any other country, but is usually third in production.
Of the Spanish red wines, the most planted and respected grape variety is Tempranillo, the star of Spain’s Rioja and Ribera del Duero regions. Priorat specializes in bold red blends, Jumilla has gained global recognition for its single varietal Monastrell and Utiel-Requena has garnered recent attention for its reds made of Bobal.