Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The orange wine 2016 Mengoba las Tinajas has more of a golden color and a captivating nose of quince paste and white pepper. It's produced with Godello from Bierzo, but the style of wine is not approved by the appellation of origin and therefore sold as a generic Vino Blanco. The destemmed grapes are left whole and placed in four 500-liter terracotta tinajas (amphorae), where the wine fermented and was kept in contact with the skins for ten months. Skin contact can be overdone, but that's not the case here, where the varietal character is still noticeable and the palate is very tasty but not that tannic. This vintage feels very lively and fresh in the palate. I really liked this very much; it's among my favorite wines of this style in Spain. 1,100 bottles were filled in November 2017
Godello is native to northwest Spain and has experienced a major revival in the last 20 years. Godello wines are typically sleek and lightly creamy in texture. Barrel fermentation and lees stirring are typical in Valdeorras, Spain where the grape comes from. These winemaking techniques make the most of Godello's inherent structure and help bring out its lovely floral character. Somm Secret—DNA profiling says that Spain’s Godello is actually identical to the Portugese grape variety Gouveio, which grows throughout the Douro and Dão (where it used to mistakenly be called Verdelho).
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.