Winemaker Notes
This wine takes its name from the walls that protected the monastery at Poblet during the Mercenary Wars. The unmistakeable identity of Grans Muralles is thanks to the stony, slate ground (Licorella) of the region, and the grape varieties believed to be extinct, such as Garró and Querol, using modern viticultural techniques. Together with Cariñena and Monastrell they create the unique spirit of this wine.
Blend: 41% Cariñena, 39% Garnacha, 10% Querol, 5% Monastrell, 5% Garró
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Juicy and refined with lots of finesse here. Complex aromas of berries, chili chocolate, plums, flowers and mineral, with some cigar box and truffle. Medium to full body, but ethereal and elegant with streamlined concentration. Sleek, silky, precise and very long. Already delicious now, but will hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The red blend 2018 Grans Muralles was produced with 41% Cariñena, 39% Garnacha, 10% Querol, 5% Monastrell and 5% Garró. This is the first wine where they used the recovered ancestral varieties Querol and Garró. It fermented in stainless steel and matured in new 300-liter French barriques and new 1,500-liter oak foudres for six months and then moved to second-use 500-liter barrel and 1,500-liter foudres, where the wine matured for a further 10 months, but the Cariñena and Monastrell had less time in wood. It has 14.22% alcohol and a low pH of 3.35, denoting good freshness. It is very aromatic and floral, expressive, fruit-driven, elegant and quite cool, as the mountains stop the warm winds from the Mediterranean. It has very good freshness. The oak is neatly integrated and folded into the fruit, the tannins are fine, and the wine comes through as balanced and medium-bodied. Really very good, the finest vintage so far and one of the highlights of the tasting. I tasted the earlier vintages and they showed more oak and tannins, and some vintages still need more time. The 2018 is more harmonious and balanced.
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Wine Spectator
An elegant, medium- to full-bodied red, with pure flavors of baked black plum and raspberry underscored by rich notes of toast, smoke, espresso and herbes de Provence. Shows supple, well-knit and integrated tannins with a creamy edge, while the finish is long, fresh and spiced. Garnacha, Monastrell, Querol, Garro and Carinena. Drink now through 2033. 542 cases made, 100 cases imported.
In 2020, Familia Torres Winery is celebrating their 150th anniversary, but the family’s roots extend even farther than that. The first mention of the Torres wine family was in 1557, but the winery wasn’t established until 1870, when the profits from the family shipping company made it possible to enter the commercial wine space.
Miguel Torres Vendrell founded the company, and since then, the family has passed on the winery (and the name Miguel) steadfastly from generation to generation. They hit a setback when the winery was bombed during the Spanish civil war, but Miguel Torres i Carbó rebuilt, and began the bottling and exporting of the wine.
In 1991, Miguel A. Torres took the reigns, and remains president today. He made remarkable strides in environmental advocacy, social responsibility, fair trade, and research and innovation. Since 2012, Miguel Torres Maczassek has been at the helm, and has continued his father’s work, while also embarking on his own projects. Recognized year after year and Drinks Internationals’ “World’s Most Admired Wine Brand,” the story of Familia Torres is a known and respected one throughout Spain and the world.
Juan Torres Master Distillers is the spirits division of Familia Torres. Its origins date back to 1928 when Juan Torres Casals of the family’s second generation began making aged brandies matured in oak casks; smooth and aromatic spirits distilled from a selection of the finest white Penedès (Barcelona) wines. With 90 years to its name, Juan Torres Master Distillers continues to perfect the art of distillation to this day – a constant pursuit of excellence that finds reflection in each one of its ten, exquisitely crafted spirits, including brandy, pisco, and orange liqueur produced under the brands Torres Brandy, El Gobernador, and Magdala. These elegant, personality-driven spirits find their perfect match in the world of mixology, where they live up to the expectations of a new consumer who delights in shared moments of superior quality.
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.