{"title":"Mencia","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"d120","title":"Raul Perez Ultreia Saint Jacques Tinto 2022","description":"","brand":"Left Bank","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45019621130473,"sku":"S16840","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0579\/2805\/7022\/products\/image_34d86a70-0fd0-4e09-be6a-302e7139cc6b.png?v=1631653758"},{"product_id":"d124","title":"Jose Garcia \"unculin\" Bierzo Mencia","description":"","brand":"Vino Veritas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43139950477545,"sku":"","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0579\/2805\/7022\/products\/image_609ead33-6eb8-46c4-afaa-8e29f757b3f0.png?v=1631653858"},{"product_id":"alvaredos-hobbs-ribeira-sacra-mencia","title":"Alvaredos-Hobbs Ribeira Sacra Mencia","description":"","brand":"Winebow","offers":[{"title":"2019","offer_id":43029300805865,"sku":"","price":80.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0579\/2805\/7022\/products\/image_8f5f8167-c6e5-4de6-8f1e-1085a56bc16f.heic?v=1672786398"},{"product_id":"almanova-ribeira-sacra","title":"Almanova Ribeira Sacra Mencia 2023","description":"We’ve featured this producer’s white wine before, and now it is time for his delightful red. For those unfamiliar with Ribeira Sacra and \/ or Roberto Flammini (which I am guessing covers everyone in the continental U.S.), I think there are two important waypoints to approaching this wine.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eI’d like you to think of this wine as Ribeira Sacra Red Wine, the place, instead of Mencia, the grape. Mencia is far more well known than Ribeira Sacra or Roberto Flammini, but I think the latter two are more important, if more complicated.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe second waypoint to approaching this wine is through its heroic (spinetinglingly so) vineyards. I’ll always remember how Roberto Flammini welcomed me to his tiny winery: “I promise, I am not trying to kill you.” What a gentleman!\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWe had just climbed the tiniest of dirt roads high up in Ribeira Sacra, truly a scary climb for this not-so-rugged indoorsmen. Roberto was offering a tour of the vineyards – a 45-degree slope down 1,000 meters to the river. A tremendous plunge! Pictures can’t do it justice, but maybe this illustration will. The vineyard has to be terraced to an extreme degree: After each row of vines, a terrace rises 8 feet tall, before the next row. Imagine if your front yard had a 2-foot-wide strip of grass, then an 8-foot wall, then another strip, and so on, all the way up an entire mountainside. Roberto calls this heroic farming and, having seen it myself, I agree.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOf course, the best way to learn about this wine is to just to keep pounding it with an amazing platter of Iberico ham, local raw cheeses, and fresh vegetables picked straight from the garden. Best if experienced at an altitude of 900 meters, overlooking a dense forest, on a steep hillside in Green Spain, with the wind in your hair. And if all that is not quite attainable at the moment, don’t worry, for this wine will take you there:\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIt's vividly red-fruited, in the lighter spectrum of the range – pomegranate, strawberry and a touch of fennel spice. Mencia can come in many forms (which is why I prefer to use Ribiera Sacra for this wine), and this is on the elegant, luminous, featherweight side of the spectrum. Which is not to say that its “lightness” reflects any lack of flavor. Like great Pinot Noir, it is both light bodied and flavor-full, rich in depth, while dancing and lithe in character. Its charms continue on the palate with a polished, gentle midpalate and a velvety, long finish.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNow a note about the price – I was introduced to some of the top Ribeira Sacra producers by a wise and intrepid client years ago. As things go in the wine industry, the world found out about these magical wines. Now the top one or two producers are snapped up on allocation and simply nothing ever remains –at prices verging on $100 a bottle.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eI believe this producer belongs in that top echelon of the region. But you’ll notice that it’s not $100 a bottle. That’s because I was there, and as a merchant I am buying this wine as “direct” as the law will allow. Cutting out two middlemen is the entire reason this wine is on offer at this price. Try it, fall in love with it (as I have), and relish in knowing you are drinking one of the best – for far, far less.","brand":"Misa","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43124293697769,"sku":"10840372721314","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0579\/2805\/7022\/files\/Websitephototemplate_84.png?v=1697041807"},{"product_id":"2018-casar-de-burbia-mencia","title":"Casar de Burbia Mencia 2021","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eHaving always heard that Spaniards eat late, I operated under the assumption that 8 pm was late. So when we arrived in the Valtuille de Arriba – the last Roman outpost before Galicia in ancient times – at 11 pm, I assumed we’d go straight to the hotel. Not so! Instead, we were to make our introductions to the hardest-working man I’ve ever met in the wine business - Isidro Fernandez.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA passionate man, and a charming one as well, Isidro was about to be up for his third day straight because we were managing to execute the incredible faux pas of meeting a winemaker for a professional tasting right during harvest. But to Isidro, this was no problem. In his nearly single-person winery he pulled out all the stops, tasting us on his magical Spanish Mencia wine while feeding us dinner.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eVery early the next morning, the magic continued. He took us up into the Valtuille de Arriba, a valley at the edge of Bierzo, just before the trip over into Galicia, or Green Spain. In ancient times, Romans knew this valley very well. It was the last stopping point of the Empire before the horrendous and century-long blood bath that would eventually result in the conquering of Galicia. In modern times, you may also know of this valley, if you’ve heard of the Camino de Santiago. The Camino runs through the valley, and indeed right through Isidro’s vineyards. Once, when asked if birds feasting on his deliciously ripe grapes were a problem he responded “no – the pilgrims eat more.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMost assuredly, there is a good reason to eat these grapes. Maybe it’s the enchantment of a being on a pilgrim trail traversed daily by hundreds contemplating the wonders of life, or maybe the grapes taste really darn good. But in either case, as Isidro led me around his meticulously hand-harvested vineyard early that morning, I could sense the marvel of his creation – the wine your about to taste:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMencia (pronounced Men-thee-ahh) can be a bit of a Cabernet-like chameleon. Meaning that Cabernet from Napa Valley doesn’t taste like Cabernet from Bordeaux. One is more fruit driven and tends to have lush oak aromas. The other is more graphite driven and with a savory fruit note. Here, in the Valtuille de Arriba, Isidro’s Mencia leans more to the Left Bank Bordeaux side of taste, Pauillac if you will – a note of dark berry fruits, currants, blackberries and plums are backed up with notes of black earth, pencil lead, and graphite minerality. The palate opens with a flush sense of fruit, but there is a beautiful verve and energy across the midpalate. It has enough fruit weight to be truly seductive to any drinker as a cocktail, but enough character to profoundly enhance a meal, whether that be a simple plate of jamon, olives and Marcona almonds, or roasted lamb with a rosemary crust and smoked garlic potatoes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhile you have may not have heard of Isidro or Bierzo or Mencia, others have. I have been buying and selling Bierzo for years and watched as the prices skyrocketed. Many a gorgeous Spanish beauty has suddenly catapulted to a luxury brand. Indeed, standing with Isidro in his vineyard, I remarked how I’ve sold his neighbor’s wine – spitting distance away – for $120 a bottle. And I almost did spit when Isidro told me the price of his wine! This wine competes at such a high level beyond its price point, I couldn’t help but sputter at the ridiculously low price he chooses to charge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNot only is Isidro one of the hardest-working vintners I have ever met, he is one of the most honest and honorable as well. Here is your outstanding invitation to taste a great Bierzo wine, at a price I couldn’t believe. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Syriana","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43161981386985,"sku":"","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0579\/2805\/7022\/files\/IMG-1636.png?v=1747943741"},{"product_id":"losada-bierzo-vinos-de-finca","title":"Losada Bierzo Vinos de Finca","description":"","brand":"Select Sellars","offers":[{"title":"2019","offer_id":44242224578793,"sku":"","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"raul-perez-ultreia-rapolao","title":"Raul Perez Ultreia Rapolao","description":"","brand":"Left Bank","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47004700016873,"sku":null,"price":77.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"raul-perez-bierzo-blanco-la-del-vivo","title":"Raul Perez Bierzo Blanco La Del Vivo","description":"","brand":"Left Bank","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47343338029289,"sku":null,"price":44.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"raul-perez-bierzo-blanco-la-del-vivo-copy","title":"Raul Perez Bierzo Blanco Ultreia La Claudina","description":"","brand":"Left Bank","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47368962277609,"sku":null,"price":69.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"alvaredos-hobbs-godello","title":"Alvaredos-Hobbs Godello","description":"","brand":"Winebow","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48153405817065,"sku":"30319877","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/waterfordwine.com\/collections\/mencia.oembed?page=2","provider":"Waterford Wine and Spirits","version":"1.0","type":"link"}