2014 Compañia de Vinos del Atlantico Gordo Yecla Spain 750 ml

Dose Your Evenings With Some Spanish Sunshine

If you love Napa Cabs and spicy Mediterranean wines this value stunner is for you! It is rich and ripe blend of Monastrell and Cabernet Sauvignon that delivers a massive level of value for the $14.99 price—highly recommended as a case-buy. Importer Patrick Mata lives two lives: As an importer, he has been praised effusively by Robert Parker for bringing sensational value to the United States via some of Spain’s small, under-the-radar artisan wines. But Patrick is also a winemaker, and his own family has a long history producing wine throughout Spain. His 2014 Gordo crushes it in the price-to-value department and is the perfect wine to have in ample supply for the last grill sessions of summer, and to dose your evenings with some Spanish sunshine as a chill creeps into the air.  A dense core of sweet black and blue fruits on the palate gives way to a full and supple mouthfeel, while leathery tannins lead to a chewy finish. 92 points from James Suckling, former head of the Wine Spectator European Bureau. Shipping included on 9.

As winemakers, Patrick Mata’s family has a long history of producing wine throughout Spain in the 19th and 20th centuries—in Malaga, Montilla, Sanlucar, and Rioja, among other regions— before the Mata winery closed its doors in 1972. As an importer, Mata has caught Robert Parker’s attention who gushes over the under-the-radar artisan Spanish wines Mata has introduced to Americans. Case in point: Gordo.

Gordo is Patrick’s ambitious reinvigoration of that family tradition—“Gordo” is an affectionate nickname for Patrick’s father—using a label that hearkens back to the one that marked their family’s bottles back in the late 19th century. The 2014 Gordo draws upon Patrick’s winemaking DNA. It is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Monastrell (also known as Mourvèdre), the grape that not only comprises a major part of the legendary French wines of Château de Beaucastel and the lion’s share of the deep reds of Bandol, but is one of the main grapes southeastern Spain, where the roasting climate produces Monastrell wines whose alcohol content can flirt with the high teens.

Mata’s dry-farmed vines not only benefit from the long days of Spanish sunshine, but 2,300 feet of altitude, which shows in the beautiful freshness and aromatics that lift the ripe and rich wine: James Suckling praised the wine’s agility, and noted the “bright cranberry and citrus nose for such a big Mediterranean red.”

The grapes hail from 40-year-old vines that enjoy nearly 4,000 hours of sunshine per year, as well as a balancing coolness that comes with the 2,300-foot elevation of the vineyards. The wine sees three months in used oak barrels and is bottled with a dense and super-fresh core of fruit front and center.