Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Rapolao is a vineyard planted in 1920 with a field blend of mencía, bastardo and some garnacha tintorera. This wine’s exuberant scent is full of ripe red fruit, spices and minerals. The tannins feel somewhat hard and a little wild, needing four or five years to mellow in the cellar. But the fruit flavors are intense and lasting, supported by spicy notes and juicy acidity.
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.