Juan Gill Monastrell Revisited: 1/3 More Expensive and Worth It

I always like to re-review wines I think were good for the money, especially when they increase their price by 1/3. I've reviewed Juan Gil Monastrell before and I've been a fan for a long time. As I've watched the price creep up to $16 from around $12, I wondered: is this STILL a great value for the money? So I decided to give it a go. 

Here's what I found...

The Wine: 2010 Bodegas Juan Gil Monastrell

Grape: 100% Monastrell (Mourvèdre)

Where is it from? Jumilla, Spain (southeastern Spain)

Alcohol: 15% (OMG! This is essentially as high as a dessert wine that is fortified with brandy)

Color: Warm climate? Check. Richly pigmented grape? Check. This wine was dark ruby, almost violet colored. With 15% alcohol, you can expect that the legs were less elegant and more like big thick tree trunks (my notes actually say "WTF?" about the legs, which took 5 minutes to drip down the glass and were purple.). I expected lots of burn down the gullet from the alcohol and lots of fruit flavor from the color. 

Smell: Monastrell works so well with oak here -- fruit and oak aromas blended together to make this a very savory, delicious smelling wine. Coffee, mocha, and vanilla were blended with dark cherry, black plum, blackberry, and violet smells. There was a cassis/blackcurrant note that was pronounced too. Lots going on. Notably, no alcohol burn on the sniff though -- a pleasant surprise and a mark of a well-made wine.

Taste: A lot going on.  Wow this was a fruit bomb! Tons of rhubarb and cinnamon -- like a pie.  Strawberry, raspberry, or blackberry infused tea popped into my mind because of the fruit and tannin sensation together.  There were a ton of coffee and dark chocolate flavors from the oak. Despite the rich fruit, the wine didn't overpower me. It had a nice amount of mouth-cleaning acid and high tannins which balanced the fruit and alcohol. The flavor went on forever on the finish. It was a whole lotta wine, but very balanced. 

Drink or Sink?: Drink. Let me clear: this is a BIG ASS WINE.  If you like full, rich, big-bodied wines, this is for you. This is not a wine of nuance and delicacy. It kind of lays it all out there -- no subtlety but that's its beauty. A solid, well-made wine, even a few years later. Well worth the extra $4.