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 marked tannins and earthy aftertaste.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 La Vizcaína Las Gundiñas has a slightly earthy touch and is a variable wine that feels quite harmonious and clean, as it's from a plot that sometimes suffers in cooler years. They are going to change the vinification of this plot to achieve more precision. They used 100% full clusters and matured it in well-seasoned, neutral 500-liter oak vats. It is cleaner and more precise this year.
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Wine Spectator
Sleek and silky, with a dark mix of black currant, blackberry paste and damson plum fruit wrapping around dense, fine-grained tannins. This is underscored by minerally tar and iron accents, while lovely aromas of mountain herbs, anise, paprika and graphite offer a fragrant overtone that lingers on the fresh, sculpted finish. Best from 2026 through 2036.
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.