Molino Real Sierras de Malaga Mountain Blanco 2018
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Robert
Parker
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This is a dry, refreshing table wine with remarkable minerality and ability to develop in bottle; in fact, it needs extensive bottle age before it is released. Grüner veltliner comparisons come to mind, with a similarly rich yet acid-driven mouthfeel and a white flower, orange zest, and white pepper flavor profile.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
They have changed the bottle and label of the 2018 Mountain Blanco, the dry Moscatel from Málaga, and it now features an old retro image. The wine was cropped from an atypical year with good spring rain and cooler temperatures that resulted in a late harvest that started on the 26th of August. It's a good year for dry wines, as the grapes didn't suffer the summer heat like in other occasions, and the grapes ripened slowly, developing full aromas and flavors. It has character and is more herbal (nettles, recently cut grass) than floral, more fruit-driven, juicy and tasty, with moderate acidity. It has a different personality. This was bottled unoaked.
When Telmo Rodríguez founded his eponymous wine company with partner Pablo Eguzkiza in 1994, they were inspired by the remote and forgotten landscapes of Spain. They knew that great wines had been made throughout rural Spain in the past, but in the early nineties, few had the vision required to imagine those forgotten regions and varieties could rise again. Most everyone else was busy crafting cheap, anonymous wines with international varieties. One has to remember that Australian wines were the hottest wines at that particular moment and Spain was being told that they needed to follow the cheap international varietal approach of the day. Not Telmo and Pablo. They knew better from their formative winemaking experiences in France to trust in indigenous varieties and look for inspiration in old vineyards. They spent a lot of time reading old books, picking up hints of where and how the historic wines of Spain were made. In the course of their research, they came across the “Mountain Wines” of Málaga, once a favorite wine of the English. Less famous than Sherry, the wines of Málaga were at a substantial disadvantage, commercially speaking, from their Andalucian neighbors. The wines were made in a rugged, mountainous inland area, rather than right by a major port. As such, the wines eventually simply faded into obscurity after phylloxera, yet Telmo and Pablo were determined to recover the former glory of Málaga’s mountain wines. Thus, Molino Real was born in 1996.
Moscatel grapes for their flagship Molino Real wine come from nine hectares of vaso bush-trained vines on steep slate slopes at elevations between 350 and 1,000 meters, located around the village of Cómpeta, in the rugged Axarquía region in Málaga. As is traditional, the grapes for the sweet wines are dried on cañas, reed mats, in the sun. Frames are set up so that temporary roofing can be used in case of rain. Dehydration by sun-exposure concentrates grapes in such a way that all the sugar and alcohol in the resulting wines come strictly from the grapes.
Most of the harvest is lost to dehydration, as 10 kilos of grapes are needed to produce 2.5 kilos of raisins, which yields just one liter of juice to ferment into wine. The sun-drying process, asoleo, is a tough manual job. After picking grapes on dangerous slopes with 40-60% incline, perfect and undamaged bunches are carefully placed in harvest boxes and arduously carried up the mountain to the winery, where they are carefully laid on the pasera and progressively turned to obtain homogeneous dehydration. Once the bunches reach the desired degree of dehydration, they are pressed with old olive oil presses, bunches being separated by grass mats. Fermentation is long and happens in 225-liter oak barrels, where the wine matures at low temperature for 20 months. The result is a rich, long-lived, sweet wine that honors the tradition and history of the “mountain wines” of Málaga.
There are hundreds of white grape varieties grown throughout the world. Some are indigenous specialties capable of producing excellent single varietal wines. Each has its own distinct viticultural characteristics, as well as aroma and flavor profiles.
Sierras de Málaga, established as a DO in 2001, is located in the south of Spain, in Andalucía. Interestingly, the vines in this region are planted on slopes reaching up to 3,280 ft in elevation, primarily in the non-coastal subzones such as Axarquía, Montes de Málaga, Norte and the Sierra de Ronda, although moisture coming from the Mediterranean still reaches the vines.
In this region, a wide range of grapes may be used for the production of white, rosé, and red wines. Young and inquisitive winemakers are producing more compelling wines from local grapes like Romé and Tintilla de Rota, while at the same time offering their interpretation of international grapes like Riesling, Viognier, and Pinot Noir.
Today, the Sierras de Málaga DO is enjoying a slight revival as its dessert wines are being rediscovered.