Altos de Luzón 2020 is now available
A wine with a history that dates back to the year 2000, when the first vintage of Altos de Luzón was released.
A name that we explained some time ago in this post, refers to the altitude where the vineyards are located, an average of between 650 and 700 meters above sea level and one of the estates where the Monastrell finds its best expression, the Finca de La Melera, an estate located 34 kilometers from Jumilla, with great temperature range between day and night, sandy soils with a lot of limestone and not very compact, difficult irrigation and where the grape must strive to develop properly, which makes the grapes have a lot of power and flavor, which is the only valid recipe for our Monastrell wines to have the internationally recognized quality they have.
Those who remember this wine in some of its most mythical vintages, such as 2014, will remember that at that time Altos de Luzón was composed of a Blend of Monastrell, Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon, a multivarietal wine very appreciated by many consumers who did not like it when in 2017, we decided to focus on what defines us and what we have always claimed, the purest Monastrell, something that for us was a logical step at the time and that time has shown, was a wise move.
It was then when we returned to our beginnings, to a purer and wilder vinification, returning to a single variety, the one that defines the D.O.P Jumilla in which we find ourselves, and we wanted to make a return to the Monastrell. To our Monastrell.
ALTOS DE LUZÓN 2020
2020 will unfortunately be remembered by all of us as the year of the pandemic, but for us it was a year of hard work. We started with a mild but very rainy winter, which was followed by a very rainy spring and a dry and very hot summer with practically no rain until the month of November.
The weather meant that the vineyard remained very robust, with lots of vegetation, good leaf color and vigorous shoots, which gave us somewhat more grapes than usual for this vineyard area.
The harvest, which in 2020 was about 10 days earlier than usual for that estate, was done by hand, in 10/15 kg boxes, then transported to the winery and once there, kept in cold storage for a whole day at a temperature of 6º, and then passed to a manual selection table and from there to the steel tank where it was fermented in stainless steel tanks, to the steel tank where it underwent fermentation at a controlled temperature over a period of 8 days, although it spends 10 more days macerating in contact with its skins, after which it is transferred to French and American oak barrels to then be clarified and bottled.
As a peculiarity, since 2018 we follow a process of creation of this wine completely sustainable and ecological, also in the clarified, where we do not use materials of animal origin, using pea protein, which makes Altos de Luzon a high cut wine suitable also for vegans.
A 2020 vintage that results in a wine of deep red color with ruby reflections, highly expressive aromas of great intensity and with the characteristic note of red and black fruits so typical of the variety, in addition to finding those sweet spices and a soft smokiness typical of the time in aging.
Altos de Luzón is fresh, powerful and lively on the palate, with ample volume and fine tannins, a long wine where its complexity can be appreciated.
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