Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 La Vizcaína Las Gundiñas is the palest and freshest of the 2022 reds from the La Vizcaína range, and it is the one with less alcohol (around 12.7%). It comes from the coolest plot, the best place for warm years, with more clay and deeper soils and more retention of water. To me, this outperforms the 2021. The wines always ferment, year after year, in the same vats and barrels. It fermented with 100% full clusters. T
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Wine Spectator
Lively acidity and notes of black plum skin and pomegranate impart a bright tang to this harmonious red. Minerally on the nose and palate, with ripe black raspberry, floral, marjoram and cocoa powder elements layered with lightly taut, chalky, integrated tannins. Drink now through 2032. 667 cases made, 100 cases imported.
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.