Palacios Remondo La Montesa 2021 375ml

La Montesa is the Palacios' name for the shovel-nosed hill-slope above the town of Alfaro from which their main wines are selected. Three passes yield the Viura blanco, the joven tinto 'La Vendimia' and its big sister 'La Montesa' which is aged in older French oak. It's just a little 'more' than La Vendimia...more savoury, more mineral, more structured, yet still extremely gentle and open-weave. It's all things to all people - affordable to quaff, stylish enough for a dinner party.

The wine is aged a year in new to 4 year-old barriques. These are extremely clean, with all wood in Palacios Remondo’s bodega washed in hot water, rinsed in cold, then re-washed with jets of ozone.

The 2021 La Montesa is 95% Garnacha with a 5% blend of other red varieties, sourced from the high-elevation vineyards of Monte Yerga in the Rioja Oriental. Aged for 12 months in French oak barrels, this purple-red wine presents reductive aromas of tangerine and sour cherry, along with a Cointreau-like perfume against a contrasting fine cedar layer. On the palate, it is dry, lean and vibrant, offering a joyful and cleansing mouthfeel that lingers on a cheerful finish. This is a Garnacha with flavor and flow. (94) JOAQUIN HIDALGOI, Vinous

I had not yet tasted the 2021 La Montesa, and I'm glad I did. Álvaro Palacios was super proud of this vintage, and he told me that "many people consider it at the level of a very good Burgundy village at a fraction of the price!" It is indeed a great value, even more so in an exceptional year like 2021. But it was unmistakably Garnacha, with notes of garrigue and aromatic herbs, red cherries and flowers. It fermented with 20% full clusters in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and matured in barrel for 12 months. It's clean and precise, with a lace texture, very fine tannins, flavors of red berries and herbs and a long, tasty, chalky finish. It has to be one of the finest vintages of Montesa to date. (94)LUIS GUTIERREZ, The Wine Advocate