Mestizaje 2021 (92 Parker points) is a modern and groundbreaking red. This estate wine (with a Denominación de Origen of its own) was made by a winery that’s marked a milestone in Valencian wine: Mustiguillo. International critics have praised its reds made from the Bobal variety – such as this one, the result of an unusual blend that includes small quantities of Garnacha and Syrah. Aged for 10 months in French oak, it’s highly recommendable.
Consumption features
Serving temperature
Consumption time
General features
Type of wine
Region
Grape variety
10% Syrah, 75% Bobal, 15% Garnacha tinta
Type of barrel
French oak vats and 500-litre barrels
Type of bottle
Bordeaux
Barrel aging time
10 months
Capacity (cl)
75
Bottling
02/2023
Total acidity (g/l)
5.45
Sugar
<1.5
pH
3.52
Alcohol content (% vol.)
13.5
General Information
Mustiguillo’s wines produced from the Bobal variety enjoy elite status in Spain. Mestizaje 2021, their younger sibling, comes from a fresh vintage. It’s made from an unusual blend of 75% Bobal, 15% Garnacha and 10% Syrah. The grapes, grown on the El Terrerazo estate, were harvested by hand in 15-kg crates.
Each variety and/or plot was vinified separately, with sorting tables for bunches and berries, stemming and light pressing. Vinification took place in French oak and stainless steel tanks with a capacity of 80 hl to 100 hl and controlled temperature. They grapes underwent cold maceration for 24 to 36 hours and alcoholic fermentation for 11 to 13 days with slight pumping over and pigeage (punching down) at anaverage temperature of 26º C. Post-fermentative maceration took place for 5 to 8 days and gravity draining was carried out manually using only the free-run juice. The wine was finally aged for 10 months in French oak vats and 500-litre barrels.
A champion of the renaissance of the Bobal grape in Spain is how The Wine Advocate defined Toni Sarrión, a huge fan of this native Mediterranean variety. In the late 1990s Toni convinced his family to convert their farming estate El Terrerazo, located on the high plateau of Valencia, into an ambitious winemaking concern, which he called Mustiguillo. He worked hard for 12 years and was finally rewarded for his efforts in 2010: an Estate Wine certification, something no other Mediterranean winery had achieved.
Since then his wines have displayed the exclusive Pago El Terrerazo Denominación de Origen in recognition of their singularity and quality. The estate is home to both the vineyards and the winery building and lies at an altitude of 800 metres in Utiel, where the Sarrión family already owned Bobal vines, some of them very old.
The property is located halfway between the coast and the cold province of Teruel, and its conditions lend the wines unique qualities. It has lime soils with a sandy-loam texture. The vines, bush-trained and unirrigated, are farmed using traditional practices that are highly respectful of the environment, including tillage.
Mestizaje 2021 is ideal with gelatinous meat stews.
Creators' opinion
Black cherry-colour with violet hues. Limpid and bright. Expressive nose with notes of red and black fruit and touches of spice with a minerally background. Fresh on the attack with a silky mouthfeel.
The winery
Founded in the year 2000, the philosophy of the family winery Mustiguillo can be summarized in two principles: to bring out the best of the native varieties and to offer wines that are a true expression of the soil and landscape. Located on the El Terrerazo estate in Utiel (Valencia), Mustiguillo is the result of Toni Sarrión's determination to prove that bobal, when cultivated with quality, is a great grape. Thus, based on the old vines housed on this family property, he launched a project that, in a short time, has managed to set a milestone in the Valencian wine scene, creating wines that are now part of the elite, with high scores from the most influential critics, such as Robert Parker; and achieving the distinction of being the first Mediterranean winery to obtain the recognition of Vino de Pago (DOP Pago El Terrerazo).
The first wines by Toni Sarrión, such as Quincha Corral, were sold exclusively in the most prestigious restaurants, like El Bulli. Currently, all the winery's wines are certified organic. They are produced on the estate itself, located at an altitude of 800 meters, in facilities integrated into the landscape: a total of 300,000 bottles annually produced from the 300 hectares of vineyards on the property; among them, some of the oldest bobal vines in the world, planted between 1919 and 1945. A parcelled estate cultivated with different varieties, where traditional viticulture coexists with the most modern cultivation techniques.