4 Monos Vinos de Madrid - Cien Lanzas Cenicientos 2021

4 Monos (4 Monkeys) is a team of four friends and lovers of wine native to this region. As is typical of The New Spain, this “gang of four” assembled in a less conventional manner: they met while hiking in the Gredos mountains, one of the most profound wine terroirs to emerge in recent years.
 
Located 80km west of Madrid, the Sierra de Gredos is a mountain range that spreads over parts of three appellations – Méntrida, Vinos de Madrid, and Castilla y León – and sits between 600 and 1200 meters in elevation. Old bush vines planted on sand, granite, and schist intermingle with sweet-scented olive, evergreen, almond, and chestnut trees, scrub brush, chamomile, and wildflowers. This is a landscape that feels like a holy collision between the Mediterranean and the Alpine, and the region is often deemed magical for its beauty and immense diversity.
 
It is this terroir that 4 Monos champions with organic farming, and articulates so beautifully with their utterly crystalline and transparent wines. 4 Monos is comprised of winemakers Javier García (formerly the head winemaker at Méntrida icon Bodegas Jiménez-Landi) and Laura García, wine-lover David Velasco, and vineyard holder David Moreno, and 2010 was their first vintage as a team. Over ten years they have acquired 5 hectares of their own vineyard parcels, a small bodega with built-in concrete tanks in Cadalso de los Vidrios, and are also working another 5ha with local growers who share their passion for organic farming practices. By putting a focus on the land and the variances in terroir from village to village, they have brought the potential of the Gredos terroir to the world’s attention and revived production from grapes such as Morenillo and Cariñena.

Cien Lanzas Cenicientos is a single-village red comprised of old vine Garnacha, with a small addition of Cariñena and Garnacha Blanca, planted on sandy soils with gneiss and pink granite in the village of the same name. The grapes are hand-harvested, whole-cluster cold macerated, wild yeast fermented with 100% whole clusters and 40 days maceration, then raised in 300 and 500 liter used barrels for 12 months.

“The regular Cien Lanzas 2021 is similar to the one from tinaja but fermented and matured in a combination of concrete and oak vats with fill clusters at different times because the plots were harvested different times, between September 9th and 29th. It has good ripeness and development or aromas and flavors. It has a combination of elegance and rusticity, but with a very good balance between fruit and soil. It is aromatic, with notes of violets and wild herbs, and has an ethereal side and a solid palate with abundant and fine-grained tannins. This has to be the finest vintage of this bottling.” - 94 Points, The Wine Advocate 

Producer: 4 Monos

Country: Spain

Region: Madrid

Varietal: Grenache, Cariñena, Grenache Blanc

Appellation: Vinos de Madrid

Vintage: 2021

Size: 750ml