A few pockets of very old vines planted on their own rootstocks survive, one of which is the vineyard in Jumilla in southeastern Spain, which produced Casa Castillo's cult bottling and its fans would argue it's those eponymous pie franco (ungrafted) monastrell vines that are the key to the wine's magical mix of airy grace and vivid red fruit.
Part of the reason for the survival of Casa Castillo's vines is that they were planted, in the 1940s, in a sandy soil which phylloxera doesn't much like. All the same, each year the louse takes away a little more of the vineyard and the dwindling production (along with the ecstatic critics' scores it's had in Spain and the USA) helps explain its astronomical price.
Collection
[
|
...
]