The Vineyard Monastrell

I just finished an old John LeCarre novel, Our Game, in which the protagonist is a retired spy named Cranmer who has inherited a vineyard from an eccentric uncle. It’s a typical LeCarre novel, with its tone of masculine regret and unfulfilled longing, secrets from the past that impose themselves on the present and so on. As much as our hero would like to go about the business of making wine, he can’t, because an old Cold War agent that he used to handle has gone missing, along with 37 million pounds, and, incidentally, the lithe and beautiful 25-year-old that Cranmer hoped to live out his retirement with.

Great stuff. What I liked particularly were the meditations on winemaking. Cranmer’s uncle refused to believe that pinot noir could not be grown in Somerset, as well as other fancy French varieties. Cranmer, now a winemaker as well as a retired spy — along the path of his disillusionment — discovers another hard truth. This one about wine. You must fit the grape to the soil and climate, that is the only way. Good wine comes from this acceptance; bad wine comes from the human temptation to believe in willpower and miracles.

It is in this spirit that I give you monastrell and the little known Denominacion de Origen (DO) called Jumilla, (pronounced hue-Mill-ah), which sits inland in the south east corner of the Spanish peninsula. The region extends over the northern part of the region of Murcia, famous for its oranges, and the region of Castile La Mancha.  This is an area that has made dramatic changes in the last few decades, and the monastrell grape appears to be perfect for the climatic conditions involved. This zone consists of plateaus and valleys not so far from the Mediterranean so that it gets some cooling air, and is not as arid as it becomes just a few miles to the south (where it soon becomes desert, where they made the Spaghetti westerns like “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”). Nevertheless, the region gets very little rainfall, and what rainfall there is irregular.

All of this seems to suit monastrell (known as mourvedre in France), which seems to like the lack of rain and the dark, lime-bearing soils of the region. The wines themselves are simply delicious in my view, very fruitful and lush and ripe with black plum and black cherry qualities, and glossy, but without the cloying sugar that one finds in syrah, and with a distinctively spiced, cloved, aromatic quality so that even a cheaply priced wine seems to have abundant character.

I’ve tried several over the last month or so, and have basically made it my home table wine for the time being, as it is both satisfying and affordable.

I would unhesitatingly recommend all of these wines. Each was distinct, and all benefitted from about 15 minutes of aeration to soften the muscular tannins.

The 2006 Bodegas Juan Guan Gil Monastrell ($16) was perhaps the most muscular of the group. Here are my notes more less poured out in order: “purple, red meat, sage and pine, violets, wood smoke, stewed black tea, black plums, blackberry, white pepper, cloves and spices.” The final word was “muscular.” Again, this wine softened over the life of the bottle, but would pair very well with a pepper steak or lamb.

Bodegas Luzon is a very sophisticated company that makes a number of wines, including an excellent organic monastrell with a lovely label that features grasses and pleasant insects. The 2006 Luzon Jumilla ($14) is probably a blend, but predominantly monastrell. It was soft and warm, with ripe blackberry fruit, mint, dried plums and a delicious generosity.

My favorite, and the wine I’ve been buying to entertain with in the last few weeks has been the 2005 Bodegas Castano Hecula ($14). This is a powerful wine, floral on the nose, with violets and wildflowers, and with pine and other heady, woody qualities. Blackberry and mulberry fruit, very chewy, with a long finish and hints of licorice and even mint, but all held together by strong tannins and a luscious, glossy finish. At the price, this is an unsurpassable wine and perfect for the heavy, rich meals that we love at this time of year.