Monkeyshed Wines

An estate from scratch with no expense spared first planted in 1991 and definitely at the leading edge of the wave of new style wine businesses. Vast sums and influence were lobbed at the powers that be to extend the boundaries of the already established Ribera del Duero appellation to include this new property. A grand Frenchman, Pascal Delbeck, of Bordeaux fame was brought in to establish the vineyards and “teach” the locals how to make real wine! Not the sort of estate that would normally tickle my fancy or delivery the grail of both quality and value for money.
The strongarm tactics failed to influence an appellation extension and the estate was forced to open its eyes to what they had – a great site to make fantastic wine bordering a well known and usefully marketable appellation. Pascal really does know his stuff in the vineyards and has nurtured a very fine local winemaking talent, Angel Anocibar Beloqui. Finally the business has been realistic about selling at fair price for its wines.
If the intention might not have been there originally, the result, a property with more respect for its site than its appellation, a winemaker true to the vineyard site and the grapes it produces and a business arm with a reasonable approach to the market, is very much the sort of estate that does tickle my fancy.
The wine has all the inky earth strength of good Tempranillo. Potentially delightful but one dimensional this is spiced up by an injection of fruity Cabernet Sauvignon and the blend spends 10 months in, predominantly American, oak prior to bottling. Judicious with all three ingredients.