Wine by the winery Alto Moncayo

Bodegas Alto Moncayo is inside D.O. Campo de Borja, west of the Province of Zaragoza. Also in the Ebro valley, 60 km from the capital, in a transition area between the mountains of the Iberian mountain range and the Ebro valley, where the municipalities of 16 villages are currently located in, with an area of around 8,000 hectares of vineyard. We must highlight that the vineyard heritage of Campo de Borja is very rich in the Garnacha Tinta variety, the flagship of Alto Moncayo, whose oldest vineyards date back to 1145. There are 5,000 hectares of their vineyards planted with this variety, and more than 2,000 of them are between 30 and 50 years old.

History of the winery

Bodegas Alto Moncayo is a small winery that was created in 2002 by Jorge Ordóñez, a renowned importer of Spanish wines in the United States, and by several national and international partners, such as Australian winemaker Chris Ringland and Bodegas Borsao.

José Miguel Sanmartín is currently the director and manager of this winery, and also of Bodegas Borsao, one of the partners of Alto Moncayo.
It is located on the road that goes from Borja to El Buste, at 500 metres above sea level. From its privileged location, to the North-west you can see the Sanctuary of Misericordia and La Muela de Borja.

To the North, you can see the Ebro Valley and the Pyrenees, and to the South-east the Mountain range of Tabuenca and the valley of the Huecha. To the South-west, you can see El Moncayo, which is the highest point of the Iberian mountain range (2,315 m) and from which the winery takes its name. The proximity of the Moncayo gives the area a continental climate, cold and dry, with an Atlantic influence in winter and a Mediterranean influence in summer. There are different microclimates depending on the altitude where the vineyards are situated. The average rainfall is of 250 mm/year r in the lower areas, and of 350 mm/year in the highest areas of Tabuenca. These areas are strengthened by "El Cierzo", a dominant north-west wind that accelerates the evaporation of the already scarce rainfall.

Work philosophy

The winery has a total of 60 hectares of mountain Garnacha Tinta vines, planted several decades ago on the sloping foothills of the Moncayo. They only produce wines with native Garnacha Tinta grapes, from old vines that are between 40 and 100 years old.

The Garnacha in this area is one of the varieties that best expresses its terroir. Therefore, within the same Denomination of Origin Campo de Borja, the Garnachas of Alto Moncayo are different from the rest of the same area. This is due to the strict selection of vineyards, the type of soil where they are planted, the microclimate and the age of the vineyard. Because they are old vineyards, the vines are very well balanced, with a very deep root system. The soils where these old vines of Garnacha are located are glacis, or soils of the foothill of the mountain ranges of Ainzón, Fuendejalón and Tabuenca. These soils are very stony, with boulders, limestone or marl, dolomite, quartzite and slate. These soils are quite permeable, causing the run-off waters to filter into the deepest clay layers.

All these factors, together with the location of the vines in areas between 500 and 800 metres above sea level, where the ripening is very slow. For this reason, at Alto Moncayo they achieve wines with great fruitiness and minerality, unctuous and with volume, of ripe and amiable tannins, and with a great aromatic persistence.

Wines from Bodegas Alto Moncayo

Bodegas Alto Moncayo is immersed in a process of controlled growth, without losing the philosophy of a small high-quality boutique winery, with wines of strong and marked personality. They definitely think that wines from Alto Moncayo must have style, personality and character, that mysterious "thing", sometimes subtle, that makes them so different from each other. This is why they only produce three wines.

Aquilon is the "crown jewel" of the winery, a selection among selections, both of the plots and of the best barrels from each one. It is aged for 24 months in new barrels. In the mouth it is ample and powerful, fleshy, fresh. With a great concentration of flavour and an excellent balance.

Alto Moncayo is the flagship of the winery, with an ageing in new barrels for 20 months. This wine has a noticeable complexity on the nose, with black fruit, balsamic, and toasted notes, and a very good structure in the mouth. We must noted that Alto Moncayo was the first Aragonese wine to receive 100 Parker points in its vintages from 2007 and 2009. In his tasting note, Parker said: "it is a wine with a great body, concentrated, very powerful, with an undeniable minerality and a noticeable precision, with a lot of concentration and intensity". He also described its aromas and flavours of black fruit, raspberry, blackberry, kirsch and the characteristic notes of liquorice. Parker stated that Alto Moncayo wines are ageing wines. They appear to have 20-30 years of potential ageing, although he said that their optimum time is usually between 8 and 15 years.

Veraton is their newest wine, aged for 16 months. This wine has an attractive collection of balsamic, chocolate and black fruit notes, very warm in the mouth and extremely pleasant.