Everything you always wanted to know about Jumilla (but were afraid to ask)
Undulating plains of sand-coloured earth are broken up by neatly striped rows of vines and stippled with olive groves. A solitary windmill sits in the windswept fertile plateau, the horizon stretching into the blue distance, where hills are dotted with their 21st century equivalent, wind turbines. Add abundant castles picturesquely ruined, plus a dearth of tourists and it’s Spain as Cervantes might have seen it. Welcome to Jumilla.
Firstly, let’s get the pronunciation right – who-ME-ah. Next, you need to know where it is, exactly. Head south out of Madrid, over the flat plains of La Mancha, until you see the mountains of Tobarra – this is where the Jumilla Destination of Origin (DO) starts, in a high altitude valley flanked by the towns of Alicante, Albacete and Murcia, about 50 miles inland from the Mediterranean coast.
It’s hot here – extremely hot. But the nights are cool, thanks to its significant elevation above sea level, which means that the grapes can rest and retain that sought after freshness. And what grapes – or rather one grape in particular, Jumilla is Monastrell country.
Monastrell is a
