La Garnacha de Mustiguillo 2024

La Garnacha de Mustiguillo is a red from Bodegas Mustiguillo, made at the El Terrerazo estate near Utiel in Valencia. El Terrerazo is a Vino de Pago, the top single-estate classification in Spanish wine, with around 87 hectares under vine. The grape is Garnacha Tintorera, also called Alicante Bouschet, one of the few varieties with red flesh as well as red skin, which gives wines of deep colour and dark fruit. The fruit is picked by hand into 15-kilo boxes and passed over two sorting tables before fermenting in 80-hectolitre wooden vats, which allow a gentle, even extraction. The wine then spends ten months in French oak, where slow oxygen exchange rounds out the tannins and adds a light spice frame without covering the fruit. It is deeply coloured and full, with ripe dark plum and red berries, black pepper, liquorice and a savoury, earthy undertow. The palate is rich and generous, with ripe tannins and a long finish. Serve at 16 to 17 degrees, decanting half an hour ahead. A good match for grilled and roast red meats.