2015 Casa Castillo Las Gravas Jumilla Spain 750 ml

Châteauneuf-du-Pape producers are shaking in their boots over wines like today’s 2015 Casa Castillo Las Gravas from southern Spain’s Jumilla region, because this rich red blends classic Rhône-style Grenache and Syrah and their irresistible spice in a value package that rivals the France’s top bottlings for ⅓ the price. 

With 94 points from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, this would be an excellent deal at its release price of $35. But at  just $30 per bottle, this is a STEAL. 

Whether you’re a classic Rhône lover or a fan of the French-inspired blends of California or Australia, Jumilla is your next obsession. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never heard of this small appellation on Spain’s southern Mediterranean Coast. What matters is what’s in the glass, and after one sip of this Las Gravas and you’ll wonder why these reds are still under the radar.

In Robert Parker’s words: Casa Castillo is “considered by many observers to be the finest estate in Jumilla,” and is “a treasure-trove for fabulous values.” In our words, Casa Castillo is your ticket to one of our greatest Spanish deals so far this year. 

In the glass, lavish aromas of muddled blackberry fruit, lavender, and Mediterranean herbs give way to a full-bodied palate explosion of black and blue fruit laced with licorice and black olive tapenade. Tons of appealing cracked black pepper, cloves, and East Asian spices add to the complexity—this is a Châteaunefu-du-Pape döppelganger, and one we’re buying by the case.

Jumilla is the world’s epicenter for old-vine Mourvèdre (known locally as Monastrell), which lends these wines their elusive floral tones and silken texture. Casa Castillo proprietor and winemaker José María Vicente has made it his life’s work to coax beauty and brilliance from the grapes that grow in the sun-baked, rock-strewn vineyards he owns with his father—and he is succeeding wildly: From the gravelly limestone and clay soils of his 2400-foot single-vineyard site, Vicente has produced a decade’s worth of 91-95-pointers since 2008. 

The wine’s upward trajectory is proof that as vines age they make better and better wine. You can also chalk Casa Castillo’s rise up to the soil, if you can call it that. At Las Gravas, vines have to dig several meters before the jagged rocks give way to water-retaining clay, which itself drains quickly at these high altitudes. This struggle for nutrients forces vines to concentrate their energy into the tiny berries in each cluster. The result is a strikingly complex red that recalls expensive Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines, but bears the sun-soaked minerality and intensity of Jumilla.