A perfect choice for those who don't, or can't, drink white wine. From £10.95, €15.85, $21.
You need to speak Spanish to know that a mono in this context has nothing to do with singularity, but is a monkey. The 4 Monos, or four monkeys, project was initiated by four people who met while hiking in the Gredos mountains west of Madrid (see this map).
I was just about to tell you all about who they are and what they do when I noticed that they were the producers of the ‘joyous’ wine of the week chosen by Sam last year. This was a single-vineyard 2018 and indeed it was the 2018 vintage of GR10 that caught my fancy initially at the Justerini & Brooks autumn tasting. But it seems I was not the only person to notice what brilliant value that was and Justerinis are, at time of writing, down to their last few bottles of the 2018. But Vin Cognito and Secret Bottle Shop have good stocks, as do others in the US and UK.
My note on the 4 Monos, GR10 2018 Vinos de Madrid written during the extensive J&B tasting:
Mid crimson. Lots of fruit, structure and pizzazz! Who couldn’t like this? Lightly gamey with real personality. VGV 16.5 Drink 2022–2028 13%
But the 2021 is also worthy of your notice. It’s not as robust as the 2018 but is a quintessentially 21st-century wine: pale red, juicy, aromatic and lightly spicy with refreshing acidity on the finish. Napa Cab it is not. On the other hand, it would be an ideal red wine to drink without food, or with food traditionally thought of as suitable for white wine. There is minimal tannin and, in today’s context, its alcohol content of 13.5% is moderate. I gave it 16.5, too, but recommend a shorter drinking window of 2024–2026.
It’s also well priced and is admirably well distributed. It’s available from many a retailer in the US, several in the UK and also in Spain, Belgium and Hong Kong.
GR10 is named after a local hiking trail that amazingly, according to Justerinis, connects the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and runs through the dramatic, granitic Sierra de Gredos. Like all 4 Monos reds, and the great majority of Gredos wines, it’s based on Garnacha although this entry-level wine contains 10% Cariñena and 5% Syrah. All 4 Monos wines are fermented spontaneously. Most of this particular blend is aged in large foudres, with a small proportion treated to new, 500-litre oak.
The four monkeys have their own cellar now, and five or six hectares of vineyards and they buy fruit from carefully selected additional vineyards, all of them farmed organically and biodynamically.
Do read Sam’s article for more information.
See also these articles about wines from the Gredos mountains.