Winemaker Notes
Cherry colour with a hint of intense ruby. In the nose mature fruit, raspberries, blueberries, spices, hints of balsamic and notes of flowers. Tasty in the mouth, balanced and full-bodied. Long finish
Recommended with red meat, game, roast meat, rice, cured cheeses, and blue cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A supple, medium-bodied red, this is dark and lightly juicy, featuring baked blackberry, black currant, wild herb, mocha and smoke notes with a mineral edge. Offers zesty ground spices and balsamico acidity that keep this lively, while well-knit tannins firm the finish. Drink now through 2028. 30,000 cases made, 10,000 cases imported.
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James Suckling
Blackberries, blackcurrants, peppercorns, chili chocolate, vanilla and black olives on the nose. Full-bodied with firm, ripe tannins. Rich, ripe and chewy.
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.