Tarima Hill Monastrell 2016 (750ml)

 

Rated 91 Points by Wine Spectator

 

This bold red is intense and expressive.  Cassis and blueberry flavors mingle with cola, cocoa and licorice notes.  Chewy tannins and balsamic acidity amplify the impact.  Heady, ripe and in the modern style.  Monastrell.  Drink now through 2024.

 

Bodegas Volver Tarima Hill Monastrell 2016

 

Location:  Pinoso, Alicante.

 

Varietal:  100% Monastrell

 

Tasting Notes

 

Cherry color with a hint of intense ruby.  In the nose mature fruit, raspberries, blueberries, spices, hints of balsamic and notes of flowers.  Tasty in the mouth, balanced and full-bodied.  Long finish

 

Comments:  Tarima Hill is a complex, elegant, varietal expression of the most authentic clones of Monastrell in the world.

 

Winemaking:  The grapes are sorted meticulously at the winery, and fermented in stainless steel open top fermenters by indigenous yeast.  The wine is transferred to primarily new French oak Bordelaise and Burgundy barrels and some second use barrels for malolactic fermentation.

 

Ageing:  14 months in primarily new French oak Bordelaise and Burgundy barrels and some second use barrels.

 

Bottling:  Unfined and unfiltered.

 

Vineyard:  Multiple proprietary ungrafted vineyards planted in the unique terroir of the subregion located between the Sierra de Salinas, Sierra de Umbria, and the Sierra de la Sima.

 

Year(s) Planted:  Between 1935 and 1970

 

Viticulture:  Traditional dry farmed viticulture.  Organic goblet trained vines.  Cultivated completely by hand, with minimal human intervention.  Harvested by hand.

 

Yields:  1.5 kg per plant

 

Vineyard Area:  460 Acres (185Ha.)

 

Total Area in D.O.:  25,000 acres (9,986Ha.)

 

Altitude:  2100-2450ft.  (650-750m)

 

Soils:  The soil is dry and shallow, and is primarily composed of limestone, which is the mother rock.  The soil is intermixed with large chunks of pure chalk.  The largest marble quarry in Europe is located near our vineyards, testament to the chalky quality of the soils.  Marble is the product of chalk, or calcium carbonate, that has been compressed over a very long period of time.

 

Climate:  Continental, with some Mediterranean influence.  A very unique microclimate that is the result of the convergence of the three previously mentioned mountain ranges, combined with the high altitudes, that are unique to this sub-region of Alicante. 

 

Harvest:  Beginning of October.

 

 

Bodegas Volver

 

Bodegas Volver was founded in 2004 by Rafael Canizares, one of those responsible for the international boom in Spanish wines in the 1990’s.

 

Our most prized asset is our heritage of vines between 30 and 90 years old, indigenous varieties cultivated in a sustainable way with minimal intervention.

 

The pillars of the bodega are based on the repositioning of quality Spanish wines and recovering old indigenous vineyards which, either through low production or lack of generational succession, had been lost.

 

Bodegas Volver creates wines in other winemaking regions of Spain such as Alicante, La Manch, Jumilla, Rueda, Valencia and Almansa.

 

Rafael Canizares

 

Born in 1967 in Las Mesas (Cuenca) Rafael Canizares’ life has revolved around La Manch and wine.  His great-grandparents were vine-growers and so four generations of his family have lived and breathed the love of the vineyard and viticulture.