Last week I attended a virtual masterclass presented by Master Sommelier Evan Goldstein on European Wine Treasures -- a three-year European Union co-funded initiative designed to showcase wines from the ancient vineyards of Greece to the distinctive terroir of Jumilla PDO, Spain. The idea is to present two iconic (yet perhaps obscure) wine regions with one European story in terms of exploring the authenticity, heritage, and quality behind European wines with certified origin.
The discussion on the Jumilla PDO focused on the region's basic terroir and then to its signature grape: Monastrell (which most of the world knows as Mourvèdre). The common factor is that this thick-skinned and late ripening grape thrives in Jumillo's limestone and dry farmed soils. The large diurnal temperature swings help retain freshness and the longer growing season slowly concentrates fruit and helps generate structured dark fruit and "Monte Bajo" -- a signature aromatic profile.
The masterclass taught us that
Jumilla’s terroir is built upon a high, semi‑arid plateau in southeastern Spain, where elevations from 400 to 900 meters (1300-2000 feet) create sharp diurnal temperature swings that help maintain acidity in an otherwise hot interior climate. The region receives little rain (under 300 mm of annual rainfall) making drought stress a defining condition of the dry‑farmed, bush‑trained vines. Its soils are predominantly calcareous—light, stony limestone and sandy loams with low organic matter and excellent drainage—which naturally limit vigor, encourage deep rooting, and historically provided resistance to phylloxera. Climatically, Jumilla sits at the intersection of continental and Mediterranean influences: intense summer heat moderated by altitude, cold winters, and periodic Levantine breezes that temper extremes. (The Levantine breezes are easterly winds that blow through the western Mediterranean Sea and along the southern coasts of Spain and France.) These combined factors produce an environment where vine growth is restrained, yields are low, and fruit develops with notable concentration, structure, and mineral expression -- all hallmarks of the region’s distinct high‑plateau environment.
is a late‑ripening, thick‑skinned variety whose parentage is completely Spanish in nature. Recent genetic work published in the
Vitis – Journal of Grapevine Research (2015) indicate that it is a natural cross between
Hebén and an as‑yet‑unidentified second parent. Its historical heartland is the Mediterranean arc of eastern Spain, where references to Murvedre and Monestrell appear in medieval agricultural records from Valencia and Catalonia (
Wikipedia). Jumilla became one of its most important refuges in the late 19th century: the region’s sandy, limestone‑rich soils resisted phylloxera, allowing vast tracts of ungrafted Monastrell to survive while neighboring regions were devastated.
Francisco Pacheco planted the seeds for Bodegas Viña Elena in the early 1940s by purchasing a property in Jumilla’s warmest and driest region, that of northeast of Murcia. This early bodega included a wine press and thus Francisco began to make wine. By 1948, his son Paco had inherited the press and enlarged the facility to make and age wine with the addition of concrete vats and large wooden casks. Over the years the operation expanded and more generations joined the family operation where today the it is currently in the hands of the third and fourth generations of the Pacheco Family.
The
Bruma del Estrecho de Marín Vineyard Collection was conceived by Elena Pacheco and Isio Ramos aimed at making 100% Monastrell wines from select DO Jumilla vineyards with the goal to craft wines that reach their full expression with regard to microclimate, soil, location, and the age of the vines. One of these wines is the
Paraje Marín -- 100% Monastrell sourced from a combination of different plots, located in the Marin Valley, southern sub-zone of the D.O.P. Jumilla. These grapes are also Organic certified, were dry-farmed, and hand harvested.
In general, the grapes come from an area called Estrecho de Marín (where the Viña Elena bodega is located) that lies in a valley flanked by two mountains: Rajica de Enmedio in the east and Solana Sopalmo in the west. As stated previously, this is DO Jumilla’s warmest and driest region and the goblet-pruned vines used to produce the Paraje Marín are planted on both sides of the valley: "those in the east are subject to more shade and give the wine freshness, minerality and elegance, while those in the west are subject to more sunlight and give the wine the characteristic maturity and warmth of the Monastrell grape variety".
After the hand harvest, the grape juice was fermented in stainless steel tanks with the grapes’ native yeasts, then malolactic fermentation carried out slowly in concrete tanks, where the wine was then aged for six months in the old 1948 winery. The result is a deliciously fruit forward wine showing layers of blackberry and dark cherry fruit, noticeable herbaciousness and spices.
