Mencia - terroir and balance mark Spain's next big red

The unheralded existence of terroir-driven native varietals flourishing in northwestern Spain is comparable to the iceman encased in the glacier: By shining a critical spotlight on Bierzo, at the gates of Galicia in León province, and Ribeira Sacra, in Galicia’s Ourense and Lugo provinces – much like sunlight melting back a glacier – the native mencía grape emerges from obscurity. Grown in precariously steep vineyards and often clinging to treacherous slate-strewn hillsides and Roman-style terraces, the indigenous variety is responsible for some of Spain’s most intriguing and delicious terroir-laced reds.

It has become quite evident to me, after tasting through more than 75 such wines on six return trips to these regions over the past five years, that mencía-based wines grown on these stony, well-drained soils, and enjoying beneficial altitudes (some vineyards are more than 2,500 feet above sea level), sunlight and rainfall, have the potential to rival the best in Europe.

MThis assessment holds up despite a preponderance of popular, New Age, cellar-driven winemaking techniques that threaten to obscure both the glorious freshness of the mencía fruit and the haunting, mineral flavors for which many French vintners would give an arm. Some bodegas here strive to make copycat, market-styled wines that rely on overripe fruit, high alcohol and aggressive new oak. But with the best vineyards, the marriage of mencía and ideal terroir produce enough personality that sometimes the fruit actually has enough character to stand up to such abuse. Better yet, when makers back off and don’t try to produce ersatz Priorat or Ribera del Duero then the charm of sweet red and black raspberry-currant fruit imbued with the masculinity of somewhat rustic, garrigue-like country flavors and a strain of graphite-like minerals (Bierzo and Ribeira Sacra, as well as Priorat, have these traits in common) make for a memorable palate profile that calls the drinker back for sip after sip.

Mencía is grown in the Galician DOs Valdeorras and Monterrei, where predominately white wines, especially those made from the potentially spectacular native godello, rule (see “Galician Gold,” March/April/May 2007). Yet this surprising red variety is having its greatest impact in the aforementioned Bierzo, some 250 miles northwest of Madrid, and emerging Ribeira Sacra, another 70-odd miles to the west.

At this juncture, by far the most important of these two regions is Bierzo, which was not even a blip on the Spanish wine radar screen less than a decade ago – even for Spaniards. Yet in just the past half-dozen years, the region has experienced meteoric growth, vaulting from obscurity to critical acclaim. Among the stalwart wines: the richly flavored Descendientes de J. Palacios wines from the old vines vineyards of Corullón (made by Priorat’s Álvaro Palacios and his cousin, Ricardo Pérez); a range of Domino de Tares wines made until recently by former Ribera del Duero enologist Amancio Fernandez; and Paixar, crafted by the sons of Mariano García, arguably Spain’s top winemaker.

These higher-profile Bierzo wines have had increasing success in the United States, which has become Bierzo’s most important export market. Many others have come in their wake, including the highly regarded Tilenus, Castro Ventoso, Pittacum, Pucho, Peique, Cuatro Pasos (a wine from Martín Codax of Rías Baixas Albariño fame), Cásar de Burbia and Vega Montán. Both Tilenus and Castro Ventoso, as well as the newly inaugurated Bodega Cabildo de Salas, are made by Raúl Pérez, a young rising star winemaker who is cousin to Ricardo Pérez of Descendientes de J. Palacios.

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