Casa Castillo Pie Franco 2023

Casa Castillo Pie Franco 

Region: Jumilla, Murcia, Spain

Vintage: 2023

Bottle size: 75cl

Grape: Monastrell

ABV: 14%

Casa Castillo Pie Franco is a dark and brooding Monastrell with a perfumed, elegant nose of exotic spice, liquorice, and tobacco. The palate shows layered black and blue fruits, vibrant acidity, and firm, fine-grained tannins. Despite the warm, dry vintage, early harvesting and gentle extraction achieved a medium to full-bodied palate with remarkable precision and mineral depth. The persistent finish is savoury, ethereal, and built for graceful aging.

When José Maria's grandfather bought the estate in 1941, there were already some vines planted, but for many years the land was used for other crops. In 1985, José Maria and his father began replanting and expanding the vineyards and now, the estate boasts 170 hectares under vine, all of which are certified organic. The soils are primarily calcareous and sandy, and certain plots have a high proportion of gravel. The grapes for `Pie Franco` are sourced from an 11 hectare single vineyard known as `La Solana`. These are some of the oldest vines on the property, planed in 1942 by José Maria's grandfather. Unlike other vineyards, this plot has a southwest exposure, and is planted at around 600 metres above sea level, on sandy soils. The ungrafted bush vines produce as little as 800kg per hectare.

The grapes were hand harvested before fermentation took place in underground stone lagares with indigenous yeasts. Between 30-50% of grapes remained as whole bunches. Malolactic fermentation took place in foudres, before the wine was aged for 20 months in neutral 5000 and 500 litre French oak foudres and demi-muids.