2022 Casa Castillo - Las Gravas

In the atypical 2022 vintage, the 2022 Las Gravas is tighter and needs a little more time in the glass, which tells me it's also going to need a little more time in bottle too. It's mostly Monastrell (60% old vines and 30% from vines planted in 2006), with only around 7% Garnacha, because the variety suffered more. They debated whether to do a shorter or longer élevage, which was finally extended to some 18 months in foudre. In general, the wines from 2022 have higher ripeness, higher pH and lower acidity than in previous years. The wine has a dry and chalky palate with some stony austerity; it is serious and in need of time. They produced 20,000 bottles, half the amount that they produced the previous year. It was bottled in June 2024 at the same time as Pie Franco.