Why it matters
The producer
Seventy hectares of vine that were never grafted. In most of Europe that is impossible; in Jumilla's Hoya de Torres Valley, it is simply what the calcareous ground made possible. Viñedos y Bodegas Xenysel farms those parcels, along with 130 hectares more, in the landlocked upland where Monastrell has been growing in this specific calcareous soil long enough that some of it survived the phylloxera plague intact.
José María Martínez Verdú founded the bodega in 2006, naming it after his three daughters: Xenia, Nydia, and Selene compressed into a single invented word. He comes from the fifth generation of a family that has worked these soils, but the winery itself was new when he started it, an act of will rather than inheritance. Today the estate produces roughly 400,000 bottles a year, around 80 percent of which leaves Spain.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Jumilla is a DO appellation in the Murcia region of southeast Spain, landlocked and elevated. The Hoya de Torres Valley, where Xenysel's vineyards sit, lies between the Sierra de La Cingla and the Sierra de Los Gavilanes at 800 to 900 metres above sea level. That altitude softens what would otherwise be punishing Mediterranean heat, keeping acidities higher and nights cool enough to slow ripening. On the label, Jumilla DO identifies an appellation built around Monastrell, a thick-skinned grape that produces concentrated, dark-fruited reds in this climate. The calcareous soils that define the valley floor are the reason ungrafted vines are here at all.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
All grapes are picked by hand. Ecological farming covers the full 200 hectares, which means no synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilisers in the vine rows. The ungrafted Pie Franco parcels, over 60 years old on average, produce lower yields than younger grafted vines and deliver more concentrated, darker fruit as a consequence of deep root systems and age-driven vine stress.
In the cellar, the approach divides clearly by wine. The Pie Franco bottling goes into the bottle without any oak contact, keeping the old-vine Monastrell character direct and unmediated. Rango follows a different track: destemmed grapes ferment in stainless steel tanks for 15 days at a maximum of 26 degrees Celsius, then move to new French and American oak barrels for malolactic fermentation and ageing. The two woods contribute different spice registers, French oak adding tighter grain and darker toast, American oak a broader, more aromatic warmth.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range pivots on two distinct expressions of Monastrell. Pie Franco is the estate's most direct statement: 100 percent Monastrell from ungrafted parcels, no oak, bottled to show what the old vines and calcareous ground produce on their own. The colour is intense red cherry, the nose is strong and complex, and the palate carries ripe, mature fruit without the overlay of barrel spice or tannin softening.
Rango is the oak-aged tier, blending Monastrell with Syrah. After fermentation in stainless steel, it spends time in new French and American oak. The resulting wine has an intense violet colour, ripe fruit on the nose, and a palate that opens with dark currants and berries before picking up cinnamon and clove from the wood. The Syrah adds aromatic lift and length to the denser Monastrell base, and the dual-oak ageing builds a layered spice character across the finish.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Pie Franco is the wine to open first. It is 100 percent Monastrell from ungrafted vines averaging over 60 years of age, bottled without oak. The colour is an intense red cherry. The nose is strong and layered with ripe, mature dark fruit. The palate is firm and concentrated, the tannins genuine but not aggressive, the finish dry and fruit-forward. This is a bottle that exists nowhere else in exactly this form: old-vine ungrafted Monastrell from soil that survived phylloxera, farmed ecologically and bottled without wood. Start here before moving to Rango.