Winemaker Notes
Grapes are hand-picked, leaving stems on 30% of the bunches. Unculín
undergoes a spontaneous fermentation by natural, indigenous yeast in large, neutral, French foudres with a 30-day maceration post-fermentation. Four months of aging on the fine-lees and malolactic fermentation in stainless steel without topping up. Bottled
unfined and unfiltered with minimal intervention.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The young Mencía 2018 Unculín is surprisingly floral and elegant, with a medium-bodied palate that shows harmonious, and it has the depth and clout of old vines, as if it's a much more serious wine. It fermented with 10% to 20% full clusters in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and matured in stainless steel and oak foudre for six months.
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.