Geraldine takes a trip to Jumilla in Spain

I recently had the privilege and pleasure of visiting the winery and vineyards of Juan Gill Family thanks to the Wine Merchant Magazine.

It was wonderful to meet and get to know others in the wine industry from other independent wine merchants, starting from our first meeting at Gatwick Airport. 

First thing on Monday we headed to the organically farmed Gil Family Estate in Murcia, Jumilla, which is about an hour west of Alicante. We were greeted by Maria Dungnol who took us off to see the beautiful vineyard landscape.

Maria Dungol - with this stunning Monastrell old vines in the background.

The majority of the vines there are the Monastrell grape variety (also known as Mourvèdre in France or Mataro in Australia). Here, every task from planting to harvesting is a true labour of love. There is a thick layer of rock that has to be dug through by hand to reach the sandy soil and plant each vine. The land in the area is very cheap but the water is expensive - three time the price of the land. It is not possible to irrigate (water) most of the vines which is why Monastrell if one of the few variety that can grow here, though even this hardy variety can be planted at a maximum density of 2 vines per 3m square and must send roots down 8 meters to withstand the dry conditions.

Very old vine Monastrell Vines

Maria explained to us that while this is hard work there are benefits to the vine. Because of the harsh climate, with temperatures reaching up to 40 degrees in the summer and can have a temperature difference of 25 degrees between day and night, the presence of bugs or mildew and fungus is more or less non existent. Also, the plants are from the original Monastrell root stock and not grafted onto other roots because phylloxera which usually destroys European wine vine roots can not survive in the sandy rock covered soil.

Juan Gill grow their own vines from cuttings of the now well adapted Monastrell vines in the nursery on site and plant out vines when they are 2 years old every year for succession. Their nursery houses new plants for all of the vineyards under the Juan Gil Family name across Spain. They ensure they grow vines that will be well suited and adapted to the conditions in each area for the longevity of the plant despite changes in climate condition due to global warming. 

While they don't irrigate the Monastrell vines they do give them a helping had with a special hummus fertiliser that is produced on site. They use goat dung, vine cuttings, and waste material from the winery such as grape must to created the compost. This is irrigated using waste water from the winery which is collected in a reservoir. After 6 month a special Californian worm is introduced that breaks down the woody stems into perfect vine baby food. This is applied around the base of the vine under the top layer of rocks and allow the little rain they do get to wash the nutrients down to the roots.

The harvest also has to be done by hand, these vines are bush vines not trained along a trellis, making machine harvest impossible. While the grapes for their entry level wines are sorted by state of the art machine that scan the grapes for defects, the premium wines are still sorted by hand.

I had my first experience of an ageing cellar while I was there. The smell of the French and American oak barrels filled the room. I could finally understand some of the flavours I taste everyday in wines.

The cellar at Juan Gill estate are slightly unusual. There is almost no humidity. This means that the barrels must absorb moisture from the wine rather than the air. This results in almost 10% of volume loss per year. Here you can see the red wine tinting the barrels from this inside. While there is loss of volume they have very little issues with bacteria and fungus effecting the barrels and wines as they mature because of the low humidity. Even so, every 6 months the barrels are emptied, cleaned and sanitised and the wine is put back in, topping up any loss of volume in the process.

Now onto the wine itself. This trip really gave me a taste for Monastrell.
It is always a bold wine but is supple and can be moulded as the wine maker chooses. I tasted fruity Monastells with red currents and cranberries that were light enough to go pigeon, smoky wines with velvet tannins perfect for a BBQ and super dark plumb and vanilla wines to be savoured over perfectly cooked steak.

This is one of my favourites from the trip with just enough integrated oak to give hints of vanilla and spice without loosing any fruit:

Juan Gil Yellow Label Organic Monastrell 2022