4 Monos Albillo · 2023

PAR92/100

Another wine whose label is deceptive. Four cute monkeys that appear unaware of what they have in their possession. Don’t be fooled; behind this apparently light-hearted label lies hidden a great wine, a wine that will give you pleasure when soaking up its aromas and savouring it, as an accompaniment to tasty dishes but also, and particularly, on its own. This white Cuatro Monos is the colour of very clean and shiny new gold. It has been aged on its lees in oak barrels for 10 months, but these were used barrels and clearly the oak has helped to round off the wine without masking the fruit at all, for which we must be grateful. This Albillo has delightful aromas, very mature aromas of stone fruits, notes of fallen leaves, slight aniseed touches and hints of quince, camomile flowers, biscuits, and oven-baked apples; a sensation of maturity is always present but accompanied by a very special freshness. It is dry on the palate and oily too, with an excellent entry that is intense, with volume, fruit-forward and creamy, and has an enviable structure; it is generous, glyceric, elegant, powerful, a really remarkable wine, complex and complete, a genuine wine, with some saline touches on the finish, and apple peel, lactic and creamy notes, with a smooth honey background. Extremely long. Exceptionally tasty. A piece of advice: open a bottle now and keep another pair to drink in a couple of months’ time; this wine evolves beautifully in the bottle, gaining in complexity and finesse. Those four monkeys know perfectly well what they are hiding inside each bottle.

Nose

Stone fruit, Quince, Almond blossom, Lactic notes, Baked apple

Palate

Creamy, Broad, Elegant, Glyceric, Powerful, Flavoursome

Pairs with

Scrambled eggs with wild mushrooms, Mushroom pasta, Pork, To enjoy on its own, Honey baked cod, Cured cheeses

Drink

Serve at 8ºC

£27.01

About the vineyard[+]

The “unknown” wines of Madrid have been climbing up the sales charts in the last few years but the most notable rise has been in their quality, which has meant they have become increasingly more competitive against the rest of the Spanish internal market, reaching the position of being one of the prime sellers in Madrid. Their example quite disproves the theory that “fine wine” is only produced in certain parts of the country, as it is possible nowadays to start producing very interesting wines in areas where years ago any future for them would have seemed unthinkable. With the idea in mind of identifying one grape variety with one particular area and thus standing out in the market, some wineries have gone for the white indigenous Albillo variety that gives creamy, expressive wines with plenty of varietal character. As regards reds, the two varieties most extensively grown in the community are: Tempranillo and Garnacha which produce meaty, structured wines with a lengthy finish. The area under cultivation extends over the whole of the southern part of Madrid province, bordering on Castile-La Mancha. For the purpose of bringing out the expression of the terroir depending on where the vines are planted, the DO is divided into 3 sub-zones: San Martín de Valdeiglesias, Navalcarnero and Arganda. Despite having a continental climate and low rainfall in common, each sub-zone varies as to the type of soil: granite, coarse sand and clay, and brownish-grey.

£27.01