Winemaker Notes
La Vizcaina La Vitoriana offers 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 appetising finish. It is a wine with a long finish.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 La Vizcaína La Vitoriana comes from sandy soils and mostly north-facing vines, delivering elegant and floral wines. It's very young and fruit-driven, perhaps not as complex as the 2020. All of these reds are around 13.5% alcohol, medium-bodied and quite harmonious. 2019 was one of the larger crops, and there are 7,000 bottles of this.
-
Vinous
Full ruby. Spice- and smoke-accented cherry and dark berry scents show very good energy and focus. Blackberry, bitter cherry and candied licorice on the palate, along with suggestions of dark chocolate and succulent herbs. Opens up slowly with air and finishes very long and spicy, with smooth, even tannins and lingering florality.
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.