Winemaker Notes
This wine denotes aromas of reinette apple, ripe blackberries, light touches of pilonga chestnut, and a background of autumn earth, with points of black licorice and a balsamic finish. On the palate it is a very penetrating wine, structured, with subtle nuances of wood and a sweet and appetizing finish. It is a long wine.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very subtle and floral, showing dark rose notes with a gentle aromatic lift. The palate has enveloping tannins and a compact yet expressive core of fruit, delivering exacting balance and discreet richness. From a unique U-shaped vineyard whose hillside contours lend harmony and complexity, yielding a complete wine with nervy precision. Whole-cluster fermented with a long maceration.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
My favorite of the 2022 reds, the 2022 Ultreia La Vitoriana was cropped from the north part of a vineyard, a place that struggles to ripen, but it did ripe thoroughly in the warm 2022 vintage. It fermented with 100% full clusters with a maceration of 35 to 40 days and matured in a 225- liter oak barrel and a 500-liter oak barrel. It's perfumed, showy and a little decadent, with notes of decayed violets that are intriguing and attractive. The palate is medium-bodied and reveals very fine, chalky tannins.
Primarily found in the Bierzo, Ribeira Sacra and Valdeorras regions of Spain and in the Dão of Portugal (where it is called Jaen), Mencia is an early ripening, low acid grape that can produce wines of great concentration, complexity and ageability. And yet Mencia once suffered from a poor reputation and deemed capable of producing simple and light red wines. Post-phylloxera growers would grow this variety on low, fertile plains, which produced high yields and uncomplicated finished wines. Somm Secret—The recent rediscovery of the ancient, abandoned vines planted on rugged hillsides of deep schist has unveiled the potential of Mencia and added discredit to its old reputation.
One of the few northwestern Spanish regions with a focus on a red variety, Bierzo, part of Castilla y León, is home to the flowery and fruity Mencia grape. Mencia produces balanced and bright red wines full of strawberry, raspberry, pomegranate, baking spice, pepper and black licorice. The well-drained soils of Bierzo are slate and granite.