Alicante (Monastrell)

Alicante is Monastrell's warm, sun-baked Mediterranean heartland: a DOP on the coast and dry inland uplands of south-eastern Spain where the drought-hardy grape makes powerful, dark, savoury dry reds of blackberry, black plum and garrigue scrub, ripened to high alcohol under a fierce Levante sun. It is also the historic home of Fondillón, a rare, prized sweet-tasting rancio wine made from over-ripe, part-raisined Monastrell and aged for years by oxidation.