4 Monos Viticultores

The 4 Monos project, which means “4 Monkeys”, was established by four friends who met whilst hiking in the Gredos mountains. Married couple Javier Garcia and Laura Robles take care of all the viticulture and winemaking from a total of 10 hectares of vineyards, five of which they own. 2010 was the first bottled vintage but it was not until 2016 that the project became a full-time reality, as more vineyards became available and total production rose to 35k bottles. Based out of a tiny cellar in the village of Cadalso de los Vidrios high up in the Gredos Mountains an hour west of Madrid, these fabulous Garnacha-based wines are bright, racy, and crystalline – a product in part of the fine, decomposed granite soils on which they are grown. GR10 is an outstanding entry-level wine that captures the fresh and fruity side of Gredos Garnacha, while the other wines seek to express different sub-regions of the Sierra de Gredos. Vineyard elevation climbs to around 1,000m, and although the flavour profiles of the individual wines varies across the range depending on the terroir, succulence of fruit, bristling acidities and seductive perfumes are consistent themes. Albillo Real is a local white variety that offers savoury, saline-inflected flavours and rich, food-friendly textures. Winemaking is firmly non-interventionist, favouring natural, whole bunch fermentations and long, gentle macerations in a combination of wood and concrete before aging takes place in used oak casks for 12-18 months.

About 4 Monos

One of our favourite finds of the past couple of years is 4 Monos, a small producer situated high in the Gredos mountains an hour west of Madrid. 4 Monos translates as “4 Monkeys” and is the brainchild of four friends who met whilst hiking in the Gredos mountains. Husband and wife team Javier Garcia and Laura Robles take care of all the viticulture and winemaking in their small cellar in the village of Cadalso de los Vidrios. They have been gradually scaling up their area under vine with each year, by both planting afresh and restoring the health of some extremely old, complex vineyards in the region, focusing on top-quality Garnacha. 4 Monos now owns six hectares, rent and manage another three, and buy fruit from a further eight hectares, bringing the total up to seventeen hectares.

Production

All viticulture is organic and biodynamic, using no herbicides or synthesised products whatsoever. The wines are fermented naturally and simply with a high proportion of whole bunches and they are aged in neutral barrels for about a year.

2017 Vintage

As a response to bouts of frost in the spring and then a hot, dry summer, which cut yields, Javier and Laura decided to reduce the time spent on the skins from an average of forty five days in 2016 to around thirty, creating bright colours and tannins that have a more “infused” feel and avoid any astringency.

2018 Vintage

The Sierra de Gredos is quickly becoming one of Europe’s hottest tickets. True mountain-Garnacha delivered with a core of crisp minerality and dazzling, crystalline fruit, producers like 4 Monos are re-defining what can be achieved with what was once considered Spain’s workhorse grape. Javier Garcia, winemaker at 4 Monos, believes 2018 is the best vintage they have seen in the region, describing it simply as a “super, unbelievable, year.” He goes on to say that “it is really unusual to experience a year where all the varieties excel, not just Garnacha but Carinena and our local white, Albillo Real, too. The wines are silky and ripe but with structure and presence, and crucially, a core of real freshness and acidity that will allow them to age very well. These years do not come around very often!”

After a challenging 2017 which saw hard frosts and then drought in much of Spain, 2018 came along and delivered both quality and quantity, a consequence of fresher vintage conditions and a late harvest which allowed for increased hang time and enhanced aromatic complexity. Our first tastings from barrel back in 2019 displayed an enormous amount of promise, but tasting them from bottle this week we were blown away by the precision, depth and ageability that the 2018s display. That they continue to be offered at such reasonable prices again posits Gredos as one of the most compelling “new” Old World regions. Still in a growth phase, the 4 Monos vineyard holding now sits at ten hectares, predominantly made up of sparsely planted mature bush vines, five of which they own and five they lease. They source grapes from a further ten hectares, the majority of which is used for the delicious, everyday GR10 – a regional Garnacha blend.

2019 Vintage

Javier Garcia, winemaker at 4 Monos, describes 2019 as “a hot, dry, challenging year which also saw some wildfires and the risk of smoke taint. It was more essential than ever to be on top of our vineyards and ensure we only accepted the best quality grapes in our wines.” For this reason, sadly the range is reduced somewhat, however our releasing the wines a little later than usual has given the wines the chance to soften and blossom in bottle, to the point where they can now be broached, but of course will also improve further over time. Luis Gutierrez, for example, described the Cien Lanzas as “a triumph over the conditions of the vintage”, to which we would add that the general advancements of this young project are outpacing any natural variation in vintage conditions.

Tierra de Luna

There is also a new wine this year called Tierra de Luna; a blend of three vineyards (including young vine Molino Quemado) from the village of San Martin de Valdeiglesias, where the wines have a clearer Mediterranean feel. Tierra de Luna now joins the two other village wines; Cien Lanzas, from Cenicentos, where the style is more crystalline and floral, and Aguja del Fraile, from the home village of Cadalso de los Vidrios, which is a rockier, more mineral style.

Molio Quemado & and La Isilla

We are also delighted to offer two single vineyard bottlings, made in miniscule quantities. Molino Quemado is the best fruit from a one-hectare plot in San Martin, and La Isilla is a hard, white granite dominated site in Cadalso where the vines are an average of ninety years old. Molino is the more scented and seductive, while La Isilla is the racier and more saline. Just one barrel of La Isilla and two barrels of Molino Quemado are produced.

Cien Lanzas

Cien Lanzas, from the village of Cenicientos, comes from a blend of south facing vineyards averaging 900m on grey and pink granite and is the most floral, high-toned wine in the range.

Aguja del Fraile & Tierra de Luna

Aguja del Fraile, from east and north facing vineyards in Cadalso de los Vidrios, planted on rockier, greyer granite soils, has a darker yet cooler and more mineral profile, while Tierra de Luna is from the village of San Martin de Valdigleisias, which has a warmer more Mediterranean meso-climate, producing fuller, more garrigue-infused Garnacha wines. Production of each of the village wines averages just 2-3k bottles.

GR-10

GR-10 is named after a hiking trail that connects the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and runs through the Sierra de Gredos. It’s the entry-point red from 4 Monos (their whole range is worth buying) and is a pale, tangy, refreshing cuvée of Garnacha with 10% Cariñena and 5% Syrah. Mostly aged in foudres, with a touch of new, 500-litre oak, it’s a wonderfully refreshing, high-altitude red from vineyards in Cadalso de los Vidrios, San Martín de Valdeiglesias and Cenicientos showing bramble, red cherry and raspberry flavours and refreshing granitic grip.