The aroma is dominated by baked berries, combined with some prunes. The 15% alcohol content is a bit prickly to the nose.
The high alcohol accompanies you in the mouth as well, with a slightly burning, but also velvety, sensation. Overall pleasing and rich in fruits, with a slightly dry finish and a fairly persistent aftertaste. A wine better enjoyed with a correspondingly rich food than on its own.
This Bierzo D.O. wine is produced by Dominio de Tares in Northwestern Spain. The wine is made 100% with the locally indigenous grape Mencía. The vines are 80 years old and they grow at 650 m.a.s.l. The handpicked grapes are fermented with their wild yeasts and the wine aged for 16 months in new French oak barrels before bottling.
Although it is hard to believe reading my tasting notes above, Mencía wines from Bierzo were once light and astringent. Low-yielding vines planted on poor soils high on the hills give more intense and concentrated wines. Modern winemaking techniques allow to obtain very rich and fruity wines; although to my taste this specific one goes a bit too far in pleasing the American taste.
I bought this bottle for 24 EUR at El Corte Inglés in Mallorca while cruising, but El Bierzo is one of those out of the mainstream wine growing regions that one day I would like to explore. A wine region that was accorded D.O. status in 1989 and that in the past few years has experienced a surge in popularity.
Even though, while travelling in Spain, in the past I already tried a couple of Mencía based wines out of curiosity, this is the first Bierzo D.O. I get to taste with the appropriate focus.
I find this wine a bit too bold for my taste, but I think Mencía is a grape variety worth exploring further and will therefore taste it again in the future, looking for less alcoholic versions. Hopefully I will then be able to better appreciate the grape’s rather delicate flavour profile and its earthy, vegetal character.
Country: Spain
Region: Castilla y Leon
Grapes: Mencía
Type: Red
Vintage: 2011
Producer: Dominio de Tares
Price range: Medium (15-30 US$)
Pascal’s Enjoyment Index: 3/5