Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
2021 was a cold year with snow, plenty of rain and some mildew pressure that delivered a slim 2021 En el Camino, a blend of Mencía and 10% other grapes (Palomino, Doña Blanca and Alicante Bouschet) from different vineyards mostly on clay and quartz soils. It fermented with 30% full clusters and indigenous yeasts and matured in a 50/50 combination of oak casks and stainless steel. It's very perfumed, expressive and open, elegant and balanced, fine-boned and seductive, very clean and defined. 30,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in October 2022.
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.