ONLINE: Jimmy's Best of Jumilla

Wine School founder and Chief Taster, Jimmy Smith, was hosted by the Old Vine Conference in Jumilla last year and was blown away by the quality to value-for-money ratio from this eastern Spanish region. Join him on a fascinating online tasting where he has hand-picked his favourite wines from the region and is hosting Carolina Martínez Origone, who is the Secretary of the Consejo Regulador (the Jumilla wine association). Both Carolina and Jimmy will discuss everything vinous for this wonderful wine region including location, climate and weather, geology, grapegrowing and winemaking with special attention to the exceptional old vines found in the region, many of them over 100 years old. What a great tasting this will be!

Jumilla:

Just 40 minutes drive from Murcia city and one hour from the town of Albacete, Jumilla is one of the oldest appellations in Spain. Jumilla boasts a long vine-growing tradition. Ancient seeds of Vitis Vinifera attest to this, alongside utensils and archaeological remains found in Jumilla that date back to the year 3,000 BC, and are the oldest in Europe. The production area stretches from, on the one side, the extreme southeast of Albacete province, through the municipalities of Montealegre del Castillo, Fuente Álamo, Ontur, Hellín, Albatana and Tobarra, to the north of Murcia province, including the Jumilla municipality on the other. The area features wide valleys lined with mountain ranges rising to 1,380 metres. The total surface vineyard area covers 17,000 hectares (41,990 acres), most of which are dry-farmed and planted with low bush vines in predominantly limestone soils at altitudes that range from 320 to 950 metres. Nearly 1000 hectares are vines considered 'Pie Franco' which are ungrafted vines still on their original rootstocks (most of the world's vineyards have been replanted onto American rootstocks to create resistance to a root-eating bug called phylloxera).

The area's climate is Continental with Mediterranean influences. Rainfall is particularly low, barely reaching 300mm per year, while 3,000 hours of annual sunshine ensure that vine disease is rare and enable a high percentage of organic farming to be practised. The Monastrell grape variety represents 70% of the wines produced in the Jumilla appellation.

Wines on tasting (9):

• Parcela La Solana Viognier (Casa de la Ermita)  
• Juan Gil Rosé (Bodegas Juan Gil) 
• Xenysel Organic (Bodegas Xenysel)  
• Bruma Finca CQ 2023 (Bodegas Viña Elena)  
• GÜERTANO 2024, Monastrell (Bodegas Salzillo)  
• ALCEÑO 12 CEPAS VIEJAS 2021 (Bodegas Alceño)  
• MURI VETERES 2021 (Bodegas Carchelo) 
• CLÍO 2022. (Bodegas El Nido)  
• OLIVARES Dulce Monastrell 2020 (Bodegas Olivares) 

ONLINE TASTING FEE STRUCTURE:

For this special online tasting, an exclusive tasting kit is included in the listed price which includes a 50ml tasting sample of each wine. Note: Tasting kits will be dispatched in the week leading up to the tasting. If orders are placed fewer than 5 working days before the event the kit may not arrive in time for the live class but the wines can be enjoyed with the event recording.

Tasting kit delivery can be made to anywhere within the UK only. At present we are unable to fullfill international orders.

DON'T WANT TO RECEIVE A TASTING KIT? We understand that not everyone will want to receive the wine samples, and would rather just register to participate in the online evening without the wines. That is absolutely fine! The fee to just register for this evening without receiving a tasting kit is £10. Just enter the promotional code: 375REGONLY when checking out to ensure you just pay the registration cost. 

Unable to commit on the evening? No problem! Anyone registered for this tasting will gain access to the video recording of the live event, so you can always revisit any of these at anytime in the future - whether its because you missed participating in the live evening or if you want to revisit the presentation at a later date.