Luzón Colección Monastrell

In the Philippines, specifically in the extreme north of the archipelago, is the island of Luzon. Generally, this island is one of the largest in the world, and specifically it’s also the largest and most populated in the Pacific. And this is where the story of Luzón Colección Monastrell, a young red wine from the D.O. Jumilla (north of Murcia) begins.

How does a red wine made in southeastern Spain come to be related to an island paradise in the middle of the sea? The main thread and driver of this story is José de Molina, a military man and commander of the Royal Armies, who was stationed in the Spanish colony of Manila. After a few years of service, he decided to return to the lands of Murcia where he was born, and there he bought a farm which he christened Luzón farm (he mustn’t have had very bad memories of the island).

That happened in 1841. Today, almost two centuries later, the Luzón winery continues its activity as one of the oldest in the area. Here, the 1,200 hectares of vineyards are still supported by a continental climate, under the influence of the Mediterranean and the Central Plateau with 3,000 hours of sunshine a year and little rainfall. The result is very ripe grapes with high alcohol content, which will be harvested by hand.

The production of Luzón Colección Monastrell continues in the Altos de Luzón room, the most important area of the winery, where the first thing to be done is to put the grapes in a refrigerator for 2 days to avoid it starting to ferment spontaneously. After this time, it goes to a selection table, where the best bunches will be chosen, which will go whole to the fermentation tank.

Lastly, devatting and bottling will be the final stages in the production of Luzón Colección Monastrell, a young wine from the most veteran wineries in the area where they know what they’re doing.