Winemaker Notes
Very powerful on the nose, classic, exuberant bouquet of aged Monastrell, hundred-year-old American oak, and very old wild oak. Hints of honey. Its notes are finely smoked and salty, always harking back to those of an old sacristy and ancient timber, very pleasant reminiscences of toffee, coffee, tobacco, carob beans, fig bread and roasted almonds. Moderately running to raisin, with hints of caramel and mocha. A friendly combination, not too sweet but very mild, full on the mouth, between a slight acid tang and little touch of fire on initial contact. It moves around at its ease in the center of the mouth giving up notes between caramel and liquorice, memories of nuts and dried fruit conforming to its dryness and a flavor that lingers eternally in the mouth. Its flavor enchants and stirs you to try some more.
El Fondillón is a highly recommended aperitif wine as its slightly sweet tastes contrast pleasantly with salted foods and all manner of almadraba catches: tuna roe, salt-cured tuna (mojama), yellow-fin and skipjack tuna, dry cod and, of course, with a few pan-fried almonds with a few grains of coarse salt.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Produced from overripe grapes and not fortified, the 1996 Fondillón is an oxidative Monastrell aged in ancient 1,730-liter American oak vats for 20 years. After all this time, the wine has 17.5% alcohol and 34 grams of residual sugar, with 7.2 grams of acidity. The color is light mahogany-dark amber, and the aromatic profile is common with its older siblings—sea breeze, iodine, iron rust, hazelnuts and almonds—with perhaps less intensity and nuance than the older wines. The palate felt surprisingly light, with focused flavors and long finish, more elegant than powerful. Very unique.
Full of ripe fruit, and robust, earthy goodness, Mourvèdre is actually of Spanish provenance, where it still goes by the name Monastrell or Mataro. It is better associated however, with the Red Blends of the Rhône, namely Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Mourvèdre shines on its own in Bandol and is popular both as a single varietal wine in blends in the New World regions of Australia, California and Washington. Somm Secret—While Mourvèdre has been in California for many years, it didn’t gain momentum until the 1980s when a group of California winemakers inspired by the wines of the Rhône Valley finally began to renew a focus on it.
Alicante is a port city in southeastern Costa Blanca and municipality in the Valencian Community of Spain. The eponymous DO is a non-contiguous appellation, divided between east and west. Along the eastern coast you find La Marina, a subzone known for its perfumed sweet white wines made from Moscatel de Alejandría; other white grape varieties include Merseguera and Malvasía. The drier, more extreme climate to the west is home to Monastrell, which accounts for 75% of total DO vineyard plantings. Other major red grape varieties include Garnacha Tintorera and Bobal, a thick-skinned black variety native to the Levante (the eastern edge of the Iberian Peninsula). Bobal had been destined for bulk wine production during much of its modern history but a new generation of winemakers today are taking advantage of the wide availability of old vine material, to produce full-bodied, concentrated wines, which are increasingly complex. In the last ten years, Alicante DO has gained popularity and respect for its new light, fresh wines and interesting varietal reds produced by pioneering bodegas.
Alongside the other wines emerging here, Alicante’s classic dessert wine, Fondillon, has been exported for centuries and is enjoying its own renaissance.