Winemaker Notes
#34 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2019
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is rich and flavorful with lots of ripe-berry, spice and walnut character. Full body. Layered and intense with lots going on. Extremely long and flavorful.
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Wine Spectator
Black cherry, plum and currant flavors give this red a rich core of fruit, while leafy, licorice and mineral notes add complexity. Well-integrated tannins and gentle acidity focus the plush texture. Harmonious, showing good depth. Drink now through 2025.
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.