Monastrell

Monastrell is the Spanish name and homeland face of the grape known in France as Mourvèdre and in Australia and California as Mataro. Grown above all in the hot, arid uplands of Jumilla, Yecla, Bullas and Alicante in south-eastern Spain, it makes powerful, deeply coloured dry reds that are dense, warming and high in alcohol, with dark-fruit, earthy and gamey flavour and firm, sometimes rustic tannin. A late-ripening, drought-hardy variety that loves heat and sun, it thrives on old, dry-farmed bush vines in Spain's sun-baked south-east, where it is one of the country's most important red grapes. Long a blending and bulk workhorse, Monastrell is now widely bottled as a bold, characterful varietal red — the sturdy Spanish counterpart to the more famous Rhône Mourvèdre.