Winemaker Notes
La Vizcaina Las Gundinas shows very fresh aromas of black fruit with certain notes of graphite and a background of thyme. In mouth it is fleshy, ample, with a tannin of grape very marked and certain earthy aftertaste.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pérez told me that Las Gundiñas is quite unpredictable, and the 2019 La Vizcaína Las Gundiñas is more Rhône-like and juicy, with notes of straw and hay and also a note of iron. It's 13.5% alcohol. They always ferment with 10% full clusters and have the same maceration, but they have lowered the time in barrel as the wines stay in the fermentation oak vats until February and then are put in 500-liter and larger barrels and bottled before the next harvest. They are introducing oak foudres at La Vizcaína, and if it goes well, they might move the whole project to them. There are some 5,000 bottles of this. They have purchased more vineyards in most of the crus.
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Vinous
Dark violet. A highly perfumed bouquet evokes ripe red and blue fruits, candied flowers, licorice and baking spices. Gently sweet and chewy on the palate, offering intense black currant, cherry and spicecake flavors braced by an undercurrent of juicy acidity. Shows firming grip and smoky mineral lift on a persistent finish that features building tannins and a touch of gaminess.
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.