Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

Spanish town and wine zone south west of Madrid in castilla-la mancha (see map under spain) traditionally producing robust red wines from garnacha grapes. The one producer who is making high-quality wine in this part of Spain, Marqués de Griñon, grows cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, syrah, and petit verdot in his vineyard at Malpica de Tajo, which used to be just outside the denomination but has now been incorporated within it. He spurned the opportunity to jump rank from what was then the lowest to the local do and was rewarded in 2002 with his own single-estate DO (see vino de pago), Dominio de Valdepusa. Meanwhile, a small number of producers in Méntrida proper and in its mountainous northern area, part of the GREDOS region, began making significant progress with local Garnacha and Albillo Real grapes as well as with Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.