Wine of the Week! 03/11/24

Bodegas Trenza La Nymphina Monastrell

Normally $18.99 / Now on Sale for $14.96
100% Monastrell (Yecla DO)

One of the interesting (and even frustrating) things about grapes is how they can have different names in different regions. For instance, Monastrell is known as Mataro in Australia and Mourvèdre in France. Though we’re more familiar with its French name and expression, Monastrell is actually indigenous to Spain — its earliest records placing it around Valencia (on central Spain’s Mediterranean coast) in 500 BCE. The Monastrell for our latest red Wine of the Week is grown in the Yecla wine region, inland some 60 miles to the southwest.

Yecla is a transition zone from Spain’s Meseta Central plateau to the Mediterranean. The vineyards in the region range from 1700 to 2600 feet above sea level. The soil is a limestone sandy surface, and the climate offers long winters and intense summers. With the limestone providing excellent drainage and the weather allowing for long maturation, Yecla is an ideal area for Monastrell. Thus, it is, by far, the DO’s dominant red grape.

Created by two Danish brothers, David and Jonas Tofterup, Bodegas Trenza organically dry farms their grapes, turning them, in this instance, into a fresh, fruit forward, approachable Monastrell. Light-bodied, it delivers black cherry notes immediately that sit on top of deep notes of plum and whiffs of spice.

The brothers Tofterup declare the Nymphina to be a “tribute to our voice of inspiration, our creative muse, our nymph, who planted the seed of passion for wine within us many years ago.” We imagine that they’re talking about the Monastrell grape and not an actual supernatural nymph, but we can’t be sure. We can certainly understand being inspired either way.