In the world of wine, some stories never get old, no matter how often we hear them. One example: a young and well-educated generation arrives – or returns – to an old and wise land; they observe, research, listen to their elders, and work with humility and perseverance to fully understand the land and share it with the wider world in the form of wine.
This has been the story of Jumilla over the last 30 years: from bulk wine production to fine wines; from record-breaking size harvests to tight control of production and quality; from three gigantic wineries to 39 individual ones; from the disparaging cry of “another Jumilla binge!” once used in Forges’ cartoons, to now being one of the most future-looking wine regions.
But the evolution started long ago and many factors are involved. First of these is the land itself. A high plateau near the Mediterranean Sea with a harsh climate – frosts between November and March, and temperatures over 40º C in summer – with chalky soil which holds water well and has been home to the grape variety known as Monastrell for thousands of years. Monastrell is an indigenous grape planted as ungrafted bush-trained vines – because not even Phylloxera was able to destroy everything planted in such harsh conditions. Precisely for this reason, over 80% of the vineyards are certified as organically grown today.
Thirty years of constant improvement, founded on the Monastrell grape, have rewritten the history of this D.O., now on a path to excellence.
These conditions are what originally attracted the wineries to the area, in search of Jumilla wines to be used – due to
