1981 Bodegas Montecillo Vina Monty Gran Reserva Rioja

In September 1983, an Amsterdam jury tasted forty Rioja and Bordeaux wines blind and placed Montecillo's Viña Monty Gran Reserva first. Decanter named Bodegas Montecillo on the short list of producers that made exceptional wine in 1981, a year when Gran Reserva was declared for twelve percent of the entire Rioja crop. 

The wine came from the cellar of María Martínez Sierra, the undisputed Queen of Rioja. She joined Montecillo in 1976, one year after Franco died, very likely the only woman making wine at a major Spanish producer, and she ran the cellar for more than three decades. Her mother refused to speak to her for twelve years over the decision. This bottle comes from her foundational early years.

The 1981 summer was one of the driest of the twentieth century in Spain, severe enough that the government imposed water restrictions across several provinces. The vines yielded tiny, intensely concentrated berries with high natural acidity, the backbone that has kept this wine vibrant and alive forty-five years later. María sourced the fruit from Cenicero and Fuenmayor, macerated it a full month, aged it more than three years in oak, and rested it over a decade in bottle before release.

At 12.5 percent alcohol it is weightless in the glass. Waves of fresh leather, eucalyptus, cinnamon, and dried strawberry float above a silken frame anchored by lively acidity.

Stand the bottle upright for two days to settle the sediment, decant briefly, and enjoy within two hours of opening. Pristine mature bottles of this caliber from Rioja royalty are virtually impossible to find. Grab this bottle now before our micro-allocation vanishes.