The Yecla Appellation

The Montgó Collection is handcrafted from selected grapes harvested manually from the oldest and best located vineyards in Yecla. The wines are developed by the crafty hands of our internationally experienced winemaker and his use of modern technology.

The vineyards and winery are in the Spanish wine region of Yecla, in the southeast of the country, about 70km inland between Alicante and Murcia. Vines have been grown here for around two thousand years, but it was the second half of the 19th century when vineyards were planted on their current scale - about 6,500 hectares. The area is notable for its extensive plantings of the red Monastrell grape varietal, although it also has plantings of Garnacha Tintorera, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. White grape varietals in Yecla include Chardonnay and Macabeo.

The Yecla region was given its official Denomicion de Origen status in 1975, which was followed in the 1980's by extensive investments in modern winemaking equipment, such as temperature controlled fermentation vessels and stainless steel tanks. This focus on quality led to wines that maximise the potential of grapes from Yecla.

The region is divided into two sub-regions: Campo Arriba in the north on plateaus 700 to 800 meters above sea level and Campo Abajo to the south at 450 to 600 meters, where the average temperature is 4ºC warmer than Campo Arriba.

The climate in Yecla is Mediterranean-Continental, with long, hot, dry summers and fairly harsh winters. Summer days have occasional morning fog, then temperatures rise to as high as 40ºC before the evening breeze cools things down for the night. With an annual 3,000 hours of sunshine, Yecla produces full bodied wines, with the perfect phenolic ripeness and often with a fairly high alcoholic strength. Natural precipitation is limited to less than 200mm per year and irrigation is often not possible, forcing the farmers to reduce the yield to less than 2 kilos per vine resulting in wines with an overall higher concentration.