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Casa Rojo 'MMM Macho Man Monastrell' Jumilla 2017
RedSpain2017
By Daniel Min · Tasted 2019-10-25 · Published 2026-09-09 · Updated 2026-09-09
At a glance
In one line
3.0/5 — lower than Vivino's 4.0 average · world avg price US$20 · October 25, 2019: the very first wine I ever logged on Vivino.
No critic listed on Vivino · Wine Enthusiast reviewed the 2020 vintage in its buying guide (score not confirmed) · the 2013 is reported to have been named 'Best Spanish Barrel-Aged Red' at the Wines from Spain Awards 2015
Market note: Casa Rojo's flagship and one of Jumilla's best-selling labels. Nearly 18,000 Vivino ratings; the 2017 and 2021 vintages peak at 4.0 while 2012–2013 sat at 3.6. From the 2022 vintage the label switched from Jumilla DO to IGP Tierra de Murcia and the alcohol rose to 15%.
Father's note — Daniel Min
Original author of the notes“Dark”
"Dark." What I learned today: a first page is filled not by the one who writes it well, but by the one who writes first.
Monday lunch, I bought next year's planner. The first page has a box for your name. I held my pen over it for a long time, couldn't write anything, and closed it. First pages are always hard.
In the evening, Master Seo gave me a glass of red. The glass was nearly black. Plum, blackberry, smoke, pepper. So grippy my mouth tightened. Minjae, who came straight from work, went quiet the moment he took his glass.
That grippy black opened a page. I remember a scent together with the whole page of its day. Autumn when I was twenty-one, a Friday evening at the very end of October. The day Father first put a new notebook on the table. There was only one bottle that day. The glass poured from the cloth-wrapped bottle was so dark the light didn't pass through. Before I even put my nose in, I said, "It's black." Father opened the notebook to the first page and wrote something. I didn't look at what it was. I don't know the bottle's name.
Today I opened that notebook to its very first line again. "Dark." Three stars. In front of hundreds of lines, this one word comes first. The bottle was Casa Rojo Macho Man Monastrell. Master Seo said there's a man with a mustache on the label. I stuck a wine-name Post-it into the notebook. Maybe Father didn't know how to fill a first page, so he wrote down his daughter's "It's black."
At home I opened the new planner's first page again. Under the name box I wrote one word. "Dark." What I learned today: a first page is filled not by the one who writes it well, but by the one who writes first.
What this wine is
Casa Rojo was founded around 2010 (sources disagree, putting it anywhere from 2009 to 2011) by winemaking couple José Luis Gómez and Laura Muñoz. It began as an 'itinerant winemaking project' with no winery and no vineyards of its own. The company's formal name is Casa Rojo Enología Creativa — 'creative winemaking' — and the name is said to come from 'Casa del Rojo', which Laura's grandparents opened in 1920. What made them famous, though, was less the wine than the labels. The 'Wine Gurus' series picks one grape from each corner of Spain and dresses it in a cartoon character — the moustachioed Macho Man (Monastrell), the Invisible Man (Albariño), Maquinon (Tempranillo) and so on — and they jump off a Korean supermarket shelf from across the aisle.
Macho Man is the first of that series and its icon. It is 100% Monastrell (France's Mourvèdre) from Jumilla vineyards at around 600 m on the Murcian plateau, between the Sierra de la Pila and the Sierra del Carche. Oak ageing is quoted anywhere from four to twelve months depending on the vintage and the source, so I could not confirm the exact figure for the 2017. Alcohol is 14.5%. The producer's note: "Intense garnet with purple glints. Red and black fruit with mineral and balsamic notes. Enters fresh and silky, leaves a sweet sensation of volume, and finishes on balsamic and smoky shades." From the 2022 vintage the bottle carries IGP Tierra de Murcia instead of Jumilla DO and the alcohol has climbed to 15%, so the bottle in the supermarket today is a slightly different wine from the one I opened in 2019.
What the world says
There is no critic score. No critic is listed on Vivino and I could not find a major publication that reviewed the 2017. This wine was aimed at consumers rather than critics from the start, and the data should be read that way.
The Vivino community of 3,188 averages 4.0, with 75% at 4 stars or above. Across all vintages (17,911 ratings) the label sits at 3.8, so 2017 was a good year. The keywords are led overwhelmingly by plum and blackberry (black fruit, 754 mentions), then oak, vanilla and chocolate (495), smoke, leather and earth (394), and pepper, licorice and menthol (182). Where Juan Gil's Blue Label (4.2), from the same Jumilla, leans toward oak and dried fruit, Macho Man leads with fruit and smoke. Structure: tannin 4.1/5 — the firmest of any wine covered in this magazine so far — sweetness 1.6, intensity 3.6.
The vintage curve climbed from 3.6 in 2012–2013 to 4.0 in 2017 and has held at 3.8–4.0 since.
"Expected a punch in the face from the Macho Man; it didn't come. Lovely balance, big on plum and blackberry. Open an hour before drinking." — Vivino review, May 2020, 4 stars
"Plum, blackberry and oak. Dry, medium-bodied with a long finish. Perfect on its own. I'm surprised at the quality of this Jumilla wine!" — Vivino review, Sep 2019, 4 stars
"Strong herb, leather, smoke and licorice over a backbone of blackcurrant and plum. Smooth mouthfeel with untamed tannins — still plenty of ageing potential." — Vivino review, Mar 2019, 4 stars
How I drank it
October 25, 2019, 3 stars. The note is one word: "Dark." It is the first line of all 759 entries in my Vivino log.
It is also the only wine I logged that day. Three days later, on October 28, the Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru 2013 got 3 as well, and my first 5 came two weeks after that, on November 6, for the William Hill Central Coast Chardonnay 2015. Casa Rojo never appears in my log again.
My 3 is 1.0 below the community's 4.0. No critic score is registered for this vintage, and the community structure data puts tannin at 4.1/5. At 14.5% alcohol with that much tannin, this is a bottle to re-taste after an hour of decanting.
Vivino community data
2017 vintage rating distribution (3188 ratings, average 4.0)
| 5★ | 434 (14%) | |
| 4★ | 1956 (61%) | |
| 3★ | 707 (22%) | |
| 2★ | 64 (2%) | |
| 1★ | 27 (1%) |
Most-mentioned aromas
| Family | Mentions | Top keywords |
|---|---|---|
| Black fruit | 754 | plum 268 · blackberry 194 · black fruit 165 · blackcurrant 30 · blueberry 24 |
| Oak | 495 | oak 237 · vanilla 97 · chocolate 67 · tobacco 34 · dark chocolate 17 |
| Earth & leather | 394 | smoke 149 · leather 95 · earth 71 · balsamic 21 · minerals 16 |
| Spice | 182 | pepper 88 · licorice 31 · menthol 15 · mint 12 · cinnamon 10 |
| Red fruit | 171 | cherry 83 · red fruit 37 · raspberry 20 · strawberry 16 |
| Dried fruit | 33 | prune 20 · raisin 5 · fig 4 |
Structure: Acidity 3.5/5 · Intensity 3.6/5 · Tannin 4.1/5 · Sweetness 1.6/5
Average by vintage (all vintages: 17911 ratings, average 3.8)
| Vintage | Average | Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 4.0 | 68 |
| 2011 | 4.1 | 42 |
| 2012 | 3.6 | 1229 |
| 2013 | 3.6 | 1182 |
| 2014 | 3.7 | 1645 |
| 2015 | 3.8 | 46 |
| 2016 | 3.8 | 2449 |
| 2017 | 4.0 | 3188 |
| 2018 | 3.9 | 1894 |
| 2019 | 3.9 | 3118 |
| 2020 | 3.8 | 819 |
| 2021 | 4.0 | 250 |
| 2022 | 3.9 | 104 |
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→Frequently asked questions
What kind of wine is Casa Rojo Macho Man?
A 100% Monastrell full-bodied red from Casa Rojo in Jumilla, Spain. Grown at around 600 m and aged in French and American oak. 14.5% alcohol (2017 vintage); plum, blackberry, smoke and leather with firm tannin. Vivino 4.0 (2017, 3,188 ratings). It is the first wine in the cartoon-labelled 'Wine Gurus' series, the one with the moustachioed man.
How much does it cost?
Overseas retail is around US$20. The 2017 has largely left the market, and the bottle on shelves now is a recent vintage labelled IGP Tierra de Murcia rather than Jumilla DO.
What food does it go with?
Vivino suggests beef, lamb, pasta and game. With tannin at 4.1/5 and a smoky streak, it suits lamb chops, charcoal barbecue and cured or smoked foods such as jamón; one reviewer paired it with smoked duck. Open it an hour before drinking.
Why is Macho Man famous, and what does the label mean?
Casa Rojo is known for its 'Wine Gurus' series — one grape from each Spanish region, each with a cartoon-character label — and Macho Man is the first and the icon. The name is variously said to refer to the winemaker's looks or to 'macho suelo', a Spanish vineyard term for poor, sparse soil, but there is no official explanation. In Korea, too, it is one of the classic supermarket Spanish reds, easy to spot in hypermarkets and convenience stores.
Links & sources
View on Vivino · Prices on Wine-Searcher
- Vivino — wine page and community data
- Casa Rojo official site — Macho Man product page and winery timeline
- Grand Cru Wijnen — Macho Man Monastrell technical data (vine age, oak, alcohol)
- Spaniens Weinwelten — visit report on Casa Rojo and Macho Man (founding, name origin, elevation)
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