Miguel Merino Vinas Jovenes 2020

There are some wineries, when you visit them and meet the people behind the wine, that really touch the heart. People who pour their hearts and dreams into the artistic expression of making hand-crafted, soulful, life-enhancing wine. Miguel Merino is one such winery. 

Many years ago, Miguel Merino got very, very lucky. In 1966 he managed to score a trip to not only the U.S., but to California. And not only to California, but to Napa. Imagine - a young boy from Portugal, which was still in the grips of a tyrannical, extreme isolationist dictatorship - comes to Napa where the wine, sex, drugs, and rock and roll was free-flowing in a devil-may-care, Robert Mondavi, show-the-world-what-we-can-do kind of way. As Miguel told me, “my mind was blown.” And he fell in love with wine along the way. 

Coming back home, he worked hard to pursue a career in wine. Back then, because of the dictatorship, there was not much hope of creating something new. Manufacturing, including wine production, was done only at the behest of glorifying Portugal, i.e., Franco. But, through hard work, he managed to become the Director of Exports for Portugal in the early 1970s. 

From my understanding, he stayed in that position for many years, eventually building up enough cash so that when he retired, he could purchase a very specific vineyard that he had selected to create a small winery where he could make his wine. That was back in 1994, and it still astonishes me to think of Miguel pursuing his dream for some 20 years before seeing it become a reality. In 2017, Miguel’s son, Miguel Jr. and his wife, Erika, joined and completed the winery team, in its entirety, as it is today. 

Now onto today’s wine, the Vinas Jovenes:

I must admit, I wish it was named something other than “young vines.” First, the vines are now over 20 years old, which for most producers in Rioja means that they are in standard production. Second, the wine could technically be called a Crianza, which sounds better for commercial reasons but also isn’t the style the family is pursuing. 

All that aside, this wine is seductively breathtaking. The bouquet is extremely pure and incredibly complex - dark plum mixed with over ripe strawberry, a suggestion of violets, and just a whisper of licorice and anise. The palate is warm and giving in the middle, with a soft roundness that rolls around on the tongue, yet it also has energy that sparks you to drink the next glass. The finish of my tasting note? “This is quite superb.”

“Why is this wine so good?” I asked. Firstly, says Miguel Jr., it’s because his dad started a very specific, very selective vineyard program. He only purchased vineyards where he could exactly match soil, aspect and microclimate to the vine. This program is paying off now, but for Miguel Jr. the enterprise is also about the future generations - creating long-lasting vineyards that are perfectly matched to their environment. 

He also noted that while this wine is the “cheapest” wine they make, it is also their most important - it is their way of introducing people to their family enterprise, and as such, it is the one they focus the most on, watching it and raising it every year to be magnificent. 

I think there is one final point to emphasize - there is a lot of Rioja in this world. Rioja is big, many producers within Rioja are absolutely mega-huge and have been making wine a long time. And there is nothing wrong with those producers, I love many of them. But Miguel Merino isn’t one of them. They tend their very small specific vineyards themselves. The 25 or so barrels of wine they make per year are only touched by them. This is truly a labor of love, and that shows through in this wine.