Bodega Cerrón (Stratum Wines) "Matas Altas" Monastrell 2023

Bodega Cerrón is a fourth-generation family estate in Fuente-Álamo, the highest and most remote corner of Jumilla. It's now run by siblings Juanjo, Lucía, and Carlos Cerdán. The family has farmed organically since 1989 and biodynamically since 2011, and they have rescued old, ungrafted vineyards of local varieties that others had abandoned. They organize their wines like a Burgundian hierarchy, with Matas Altas as the "village" level, above which sit their premier- and grand-cru-style single sites. It's a bold approach for a region long known for bulk wine. The fruit comes from old, ungrafted, dry-farmed vines at 850–940 meters, planted on limestone soils of marl, sand, and gravel. The vines are mostly Monastrell, interplanted with a small share of other local grapes. The wine is fermented in wooden foudres and open barrels with some whole clusters, aged in a large 5,000-liter foudre and used barrels, and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Tasting notes: Plum skins, bramble fruit, tobacco leaf, pink peppercorn, and wild Mediterranean herbs. The palate is juicy and silky, medium-bodied, with chalky minerality, spice, and a long, precise finish. Altitude and limestone give it a freshness that's nothing like the heavy, brawny Jumilla of the past.