4 Monos Vinos de Madrid - Danza del Viento 'La Isilla' 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.

“My favorite wine this time was the 2021 La Danza del Viento La Isilla, the monovarietal red from Cadalso de los Vidrios. It has an ethereal and floral personality that transcends the style of the town. It shows the vintage with its firm tannins balanced by the tension, length and complexity of the wine. It comes from a vineyard at 860 meters of altitude on very fine sandy soils that they have been recovering since 2013; the grape was harvested in mid-september and fermented with whole bunches and a maceration of 47 days. It has 2% Cariñena in addition to a majority of Garnacha. The wine matured in 500-liter French oak barrels for 15 months. It has a great tension, freshness and balance, velvety tannins and a vibrant, symmetrical and crystalline finish. It has 13.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.25 that denotes very good freshness and 5.56 grams of acidity. It’s magnificent. Only 630 bottles were produced. It was bottled in June 2023.” - 96 Points, The Wine Advocate

Producer: 4 Monos

Country: Spain

Region: Madrid

Varietal: Garnacha

Appellation: Vinos de Madrid

Vintage: 2021

Size: 750ml