Joven's witness

J

Joel Stewart

Joel Stewart
2007 El Castro de Valtuille, Mencia Joven, Raul Perez, Bierzo - I hope Victor can add to this, but anyway, apparently the young vines from which this unoaked mencia comes are a "mere" 20-40yrs old. The wine was exceptional in it's cab franky side..lots of sturdy green notes, tobacco, but pliable. With air, a lovely dark cherry core. Not vin naturel (as far as I can tell), but mencia still...and the grape seems to survive quite well over 3 days...gaining in silky texture. Thoroughly enjoyable.
 
Joven means 'unoaked'. Nothing to do with vine age.

And no, Oswaldo, it is menca, not cabernet franc. It is commonly considered as resembling cab franc - something I do not really find myself.
 
originally posted by VS:
Joven means 'unoaked'. Nothing to do with vine age.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Victor and sorry, my spanish sucks...upon checking prior to posting, I did see a non-wine reference to the term meaning something akin to youthful and tried to extrapolate from there. (original post corrected)

Anything to add about the producer?

PS - I`m sure it smarts to have a local grape reduced to being "similar to x other grapes", but sometimes it takes a handle to get a grip. I`ve seen a pinot side to other mencias, but this was really on the greeny cab franc side of the spectrum...which is not to say there weren`t other things solely attributable to the mencia grape going on as well. Tho I lack the descriptive powers to say what those were, those mencia traits too were there. And at any rate, it was a lovely wine and for the qpr, a silly bargain.
 
A Spanish grape which is REALLY close to cabernet franc in style is Rioja's maturana tinta. There you'll find the raging pyrazines, i.e. bell pepper. I am personally convinced that this recently recovered and propagated variety is a member of the Biturica or Carmenet family, i.e. the Bordeaux grapes family, and I hope DNA fingerprinting will soon prove that. But I find only a faint whiff of pyrazines in menca. BTW, DNA research done to date hints that one of menca's 'grandparents' might have been grenache!
 
Oh - about the producer: Ral Prez is a budding superstar, searching out hidden terroirs in places like Bierzo, Ribeira Sacra, Len, Mntrida, Madrid and Cebreros. He works mainly with menca, prieto picudo and - hey! - grenache. Also with a few Galician white grapes and the unknown red grapes of Ras Baixas, with which he's making some Loire-like reds that are beginning to attract attention (well, from some geeks at least). His wines are sometimes a little fragile, but they have a lot of character.
 
originally posted by VS:
Oh - about the producer: Ral Prez is a budding superstar, searching out hidden terroirs in places like Bierzo, Ribeira Sacra, Len, Mntrida, Madrid and Cebreros. He works mainly with menca, prieto picudo and - hey! - grenache. Also with a few Galician white grapes and the unknown red grapes of Ras Baixas, with which he's making some Loire-like reds that are beginning to attract attention (well, from some geeks at least). His wines are sometimes a little fragile, but they have a lot of character.
Click to expand...

He can't be any good, he's been getting very high scores.
 
Well, the WA discovered Ral Prez and now Dani Jimnez Landi, two (basically) 'natural wine' producers who don't much resemble either the Rioja traditionalists or the Parkerized modernists. In giving both very high scores (including a wine they make together, El Reventn in Cebreros), Parker's journal seems to be addressing a little wink to a different set of consumers and winemakers. Rather unexpected. Is it a mere blip on the radar or a lasting trend? To be followed... (I mean: by people who follow those things. The rest of you guys may continue with your regular endeavors.)
 
originally posted by VS:
Well, the WA discovered Ral Prez and now Dani Jimnez Landi, two (basically) 'natural wine' producers who don't much resemble either the Rioja traditionalists or the Parkerized modernists. In giving both very high scores (including a wine they make together, El Reventn in Cebreros), Parker's journal seems to be addressing a little wink to a different set of consumers and winemakers. Rather unexpected. Is it a mere blip on the radar or a lasting trend? To be followed... (I mean: by people who follow those things. The rest of you guys may continue with your regular endeavors.)
Click to expand...

Indeed, to be followed.
 
originally posted by VS:
Oh - about the producer: Ral Prez is a budding superstar, searching out hidden terroirs in places like Bierzo, Ribeira Sacra, Len, Mntrida, Madrid and Cebreros. He works mainly with menca, prieto picudo and - hey! - grenache. Also with a few Galician white grapes and the unknown red grapes of Ras Baixas, with which he's making some Loire-like reds that are beginning to attract attention (well, from some geeks at least). His wines are sometimes a little fragile, but they have a lot of character.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this Victor. Sounds like an interesting winemaker. Any idea of his overall winemaking approach (indigenous yeasts, etc?). Fwiw, this wine, at an unassuming $11, was surprisingly sturdy. I figure that it's development (rather than a decline) over a couple of days was an indication I could pick up a few more and lay a couple down for a bit.
 
Basically, what the other good winemakers his age (he's about 36) are doing in Spain, but with some extra talent on the plus side and a tendency to do too many things in too many places (including Portugal and South Africa) on the minus side. No-chemicals viticulture, many wines made with part of the stems on, native yeasts, low SO2 (only at bottling), fermentation in large oak foudres, variable use of new oak (he makes wines from tannic red varieties as well as from less tannic, more aromatic ones). A problem is that most of his top wines are made in such tiny amounts that only a few lucky people ever get to taste them...
 
Menca makes my list of what I consider Spain's four 'truly great' red grape varieties, with tempranillo, garnacha and monastrell. (Then there are a few others which can reach greatness in very specific terroirs and climates.) It has excellent structure, a funky/fruity combination in aromas and flavors that gives it a somewhat wild attractiveness, plus a marked ability to pick up the terroir - usually schist in Bierzo and in Ribeira Sacra. I believe its aging capability, when sourced from low-yield vineyards, is undeniable. On the minus, or at least 'warning-sign' side, I've noted a tendency by menca, which has a high natural pH, to be infected by Brettanomyces rather often. Winemaking cleanliness recommended!

I've just finished an hour ago (coincidence!) one of elmundovino's weekly (blind, of course) tastings, this one devoted to Galician reds from several appellations (Valdeorras, Ribeira Sacra, Monterrei, Ribeiro and Ras Baixas). The best wine in the tasting, easily, was a thoroughly mindboggling Ribeira Sacra menca, Gumaro B1P 2007, made by young Pedro Rodrguez (with 20% of the stems on, by the way). All the concentration and power of a Bierzo menca, plus - amazingly, for these features seem incompatible - all the freshness and elegance of Ribeira Sacra. Delicious stuff, and it bore its oak effortlessly - it hardly showed, but it'll help the wine develop. It'll be interesting to see its progression. This is a wine that Cte-de-Nuits lovers will appreciate.
 
Victor, your notes mirror my sense of what the grape can do...you may know better than I that I think it can take wood well without wearing it like makeup. I find it an endlessly intriguing grape, both hard core and fresh at the same time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top