Casa Castillo La Tendida

At Casa Castillo, the winery located on the high plateau of Jumilla (in southeastern Spain), the age of the vines has always been important. For their Casa Castillo Vino de Finca wine, they always chose the oldest vines from El Valle (one of the plots the estate is divided into). However, this has changed; and now the protagonist is the soil.

Casa Castillo La Tendida is made following this premise, and is this winery’s new wine produced in the D.O. Jumilla, which replaces the previous one, where grapes have been selected from the estate’s best limestone soils. These plots are located on Jumilla’s high plateau, in the shady area of the Sierra del Molar, on gentle slopes, where the vines are grown on dry land. In general, these soils, which are very poor in organic matter, are very permeable, so they retain the scarce rainfall that is typical of the continental climate, which is deposited in the deeper layers. Thanks to these reserves, the vineyards are able to cope with the high summer temperatures, which exceed 40°C. This land, which covers a total of 172 hectares, has been certified organic since 2019, guaranteeing that the work is manual and removing all chemical products when it comes to taking care of the land. This guarantees that the winery receives a very healthy and high quality grape to make Casa Castillo La Tendida with.

Using this raw material, every detail is taken care of in the production process. Casa Castillo La Tendida ferments in underground stone vats, using native yeasts, and at a controlled temperature. Casa Castillo La Tendida also undergoes malolactic fermentation in foudres and ages for 12 months in these same containers. Although built in 1870 by the French, Casa Castillo is now living a new life in the hands of Nemesio and José Mª Vicente (his son), where they have begun a project to restructure the vineyard and introduce new varieties. This phase began in 1985. Casa Castillo continues to surprise, and everything points to the fact that this will not be the only surprise.