VINOS VALTUILLE | Pago de Valdoneje | Mencía | 2019
mencía

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Today we are also going to review a single-varietal mencía wine from the little known Bierzo wine growing area – a small rural region in the north-western corner of Castilla y León in Spain – Pago de Valdoneje Mencía 2019 by Vinos Valtuille. Mencía is a red grape variety grown widely in north-western Spain, especially in Bierzo, which makes quite perfumed and relatively light-bodied red wines. It contains high amounts of aroma compounds called terpenoids, which brings up lovely floral flavours and ripe, red fruits notes. This particular wine is made of grapes that are sourced from 85 years-old vines that are grown on clay and sandy soils, made without the use of oak, as the wine has only been aged for 2 months in the bottle before being released on the market – a wine that has been also awarded 91+ Parker points in 2019. That said, without further ado, let’s take a look at the wine tasting results.
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

//Visual
concentration: medium
colour: purple
clarity: hazy
hue/rim: indigo

//Olfactory
intensity: powerful
fruit profile: red fruits | black fruits | blue fruits
__red fruits: sour cherry
__black fruits: blackberry
__blue fruits: blue plum | blueberry | honeyberry
fruit character: ripe

//Flavor
non fruit: floral | animal | earth | other
__floral: hints of violets
__animal: capocollo | veal | leather | carpaccio | barnyard
__earth: earth dust | black soil | compost | hints of truffles
__other: capers | brown olives
__wood: none

//Palate
sweetness: dry
acidity: high
alcohol: high
tannin: high
__grip: fine
body: round & full-bodied
balance: good
__dominant: alcohol & acidity
complexity: complex

//Taste
fruit profile: blue fruits
fruit character: ripe
non fruit: animal
finish: med(+)
aftertaste: velvety & bitter-crisp

//Scoring
VINOS VALTUILLE | Pago de Valdoneje | Mencía | 2019
variety: mencía
country: Spain
region: Bierzo
rating: 93.1

//Conclusion
maturity: on the rise | close to its prime
verdict: great | a must try
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This is definitely a great wine of Spain and, with a total of 93.1 points scored, this wine is right there, among the best wines we’ve rated so far. Check our complete database on the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines that we have tasted and reviewed or go to the about us page and find out more about our exquisite rating system.

Verdict: this is definitely one of the finest wines we’ve tasted so far – round, supple and firm, with a nuanced fruity-savory profile, grippy tannins, mouth-watering acidity and just a touch of alcoholic warmth on the mouthfeel. The wine tastes bitter-crisp, expressive and tannic, with a full body and some nuanced crispness towards the end of the palate. All in all, this is a complex and well structured wine, with a very promising future – a wine that is very close to its prime form, therefore one that still needs 2 or 3 more years to round up and develop. Drink now through 2024, but if you decide to store it for longer, just make sure not to overdo it, as it is of paramount importance to understand a wine’s limits: once the wine starts its decline (to lose fruit and flavour at such a rate that acidity and/or tannins start to dominate the plate, making the wine taste sharp and rough), there will be no way back. We often say that it is always better to drink a wine a year too soon than a day too late. What we have here is a wine that has both, distinctive personality and the footprint of the Bierzo terroir – a very noble and extremely appealing wine that delivers a mixture of nuanced gamey-savory flavours, ripe blue fruits alongside some subtle hints of violets and truffle. All in all, this is a wine that is is mixing power with finesse, with some promises of future elegance. We’ve definitely enjoyed it to the last sip.
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© The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. Just remember that there are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.