Alicante

Bodega Enrique Mendoza Estrecho 2003

I've been in Sydney for the last couple of days and had a look around the "Spanish Quarter".   Hmmm… I can see why it is so confusing for many people to identify quality Spanish food and wine.  Most of the restaurants are reinforcing many of the myths about Spanish food and wine, a bit cheesy with average wine and loads of chili in the food (contrary to popular belief there is not a lot of chili in Spanish food, if it is used it's there for flavour not heat).  Good fun none the less and I found a good deli with excellent Jamon.  Thank god for places like Bodega, its a marvel.

Anyway, here is a very interesting Monatrell from Alicante.  This one is from a magnum, which is about the right size for this wine, it's highly drinkable and evolves constantly over a couple of hours.  The vines are up very high at 2300 ft and are over 50 years old.  The wine sees 14 months in 500 litre French oak barrels.  For the Brett nazi's, there is a bit of barnyard on the nose, but I don't think its brett related.  I decanted half of this into a 750ml bottle and will have another look tonight.

Dark reddish purple with cherry red towards the edge of the glass.  A lot of changes in the glass over the couple of hours I drank this, started off with pink musk sticks and cherry on the nose that built into blackberry, smoke, sage and rosemary, a bit of anise and barnyard and minerally earth.  It hovers in between medium and full bodied. Not rustic at all, rather elegant and refined. It does need a good decant to really show it stuff, but the evolution in the decanter is very interesting to watch.  Soft, chalky tannins build a velvety texture, with the acid to keep you mouth fresh.  On the palate there is tart blackberry and boysenberry with earth, herbs and some minerals.  Good length on the finish.  Well worth tracking down, probably the best monastrell I've had to date.  92 Pts.

Source: The Spanish Acquisition Price: $140 (1.5 Ltr) $65 (750mls)

 Closure: Conventional Cork