Casa Monfrare Monastrell Joven 2005, D.O. Valencia

Color: medium dark red with purple.
Nose: mild, but also fresh, with a lot of cherry fruit, some spices, warm and very clean, reminding me of red Burgundy, well balanced.
Taste: round, mild, juicy, medium bodied, spicy, with good ripe, jammy fruit (apricot, cherry), some freshness, very clean, a touch of sweetness, some pepper and some spicy tannins and alcohol. Good balance.
Finish: quite long, fresh, round, pure, spicy, with a lot of fruit, a touch of tannin and some sweetness at the end.

* A modern, round, clean and spicy organic red wine, clearly produced in a warm climate, but offering beautiful red fruit, freshness and also enough regional character to distinguish it from the crowd, the freshness and spicy tannins balancing the high alcohol content perfectly.

- This wine has to be drunk young. The soft and ripe fruit favors early consumption. There is no problem to keep this wine a few years (until 2008), but what is the point with such a wine, it is already so delicious.

- Spain is on the move forward and upward, this wine shows it. There is also a growing interest in ecological production. Especially in this warm and dry area there are great opportunities for this type of viticulture. Produced form 100% Monastrell (cousin of the stubborn Mourvèdre grape of Bandol) this wine is amazingly soft and mild. The 2003 vintage was clearly more astringent, but since 2004 the style has softened considerably . This producer is fine tuning its wines for the ever demanding export market. The other wines of this producer also show successfully that modern, affordable and easy drinking wines can be of good and interesting quality expressing the grape and terroir of the vineyards. They also show environmentally responsible produced wines can match wines produced by any other method. And that is good news for both the wine lover and the world.

- lotnr.: 0506

- tasted: 13-07-’06

- estimated retail price ca. 5,5 euro

- average production: 45.000 bottles

- Bodegas Los Frailes, Mr. Daniel Villanueva, Fontanars dels Alforins, E-46635  Valencia, España. Export manager tel.:  mobile: + 32-473 73 13 51; Fax (Spain): + 34-96 336 31 53; e-mail: d.villanueva@bodegaslosfrailes.com; web site: www.bodegaslosfrailes.com