Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Sexy, stylish and complex Bierzo with a wealth of dark graphite and stony aromas, pepper, baking spices and dark berries. Succulent palate with a deep and juicy core of pitch-perfect, ripe and spicy black cherries and blackberries. The tannins are immaculate. Long and regal.
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Wine Spectator
Lithe and lively, this red shows a core of fresh black cherry flavors, backed by licorice, cocoa and light leafy notes. Light tannins and fresh acidity are balanced, giving way to floral and mineral details on the finish. Drink now through 2022. 10,000 cases made.
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.