So, I’ve finished traveling all around the place (I hope) and back into writing up my last trip to Spain….

With a bit of background from my last post, we can get on to the wines in more detail. I was lucky enough to visit two different producers and drink a number of wines from other producers at local restaurants and bars. The thing that is common to all of these producers is that they are looking to the older mencia vineyards on the high slopes that centre around the villages of Cruillon and Villafranca del Bierzo at the west end of the valley. There is an amazing diversity of climats here, a slight move 10 meters left or right on a hill can make a difference to the amount of sunlight that a vine will receive and the soil composition. Similarly, elevation changes the character of the resulting grapes. With elevation ranging from 500 to 1100 meters, there is a wide variation in the character and class of the wines produced here. The single vineyard wines of Descendientes de J.Palacios show this really well, but more on that in another post.

Now Menica can be a tricky little beast, it is very high in tannin, moderate in acid, and has a number of traits that some will see as overbearing, at the least undesirable. A herby green tang, smoke and excessive blackcurrant to name a few. As such it is fairly easy to make hard, tanninic monsters with green notes and there are some tough decisions to be made in both the vineyard and bodega depending on the desired style and source of grapes. Many modern producers belive that a mix of tradition with a healthy dose of modern methods is required to get the best out of these hills.

Vineyards in Bierzo, like many other areas of Spain, have traditionally been small plots owned by a family for their own consumption with the left overs sold off to either a local co-op or larger producer. This hasn’t really changed too much, so many of the wines are a made from a collection of small, old vine vineyards that are still farmed by their owner in conjunction with whoever they are selling their grapes to. A number of producers are buying up small plots and working them with organic or biodynamic methods, however this is still not too far off the way people have been farming here for generations. There are also broadacre vineyards on the river flats that have been planted in the past 15 years, these are generally for bulk production and are farmed as they are anywhere else.

The majority of the quality vines are grown in the traditional gobblet or en vaso style, so no trellis or and only minimal training. Driving around the region you will see some newer vineyards with trellis, these are mainly on the lower, flat land for bulk wine production, however some newer quality planting have also use trellis. In terms of rootstock, most vines are on their own rootstock, however newer plantings are using phylloxera resistant rootstock. I haven’t done a lot of research into it yet, but I’m told that there is a huge number of clones of Mencia available. From what I can tell most people are replanting with cuttings from similar sites or with clones they prefer from long experience in the vineyard.

So, moving on to the  wine making style of Bierzo in general, the modern producers tend to like largish (2,000 to 10,000 litre) french oak fermenters for oak aged wines, while the young wines are fermented in stainless steel. There are some using old open top concrete fermenters (or legares) and holding tanks, however the use of these seems to be on the decline. I’m told many of these old tanks were hiding places for republican supporters during Franco’s purges in the 30s and 40s. A bleak reminder of Spain’s past.

There are a few things here that are common to many other regions of Spain. In just about every red wine producing area in Spain there seems to be three main styles of wine: carbonic maceration wines, young wines with or without oak, and mature wines with extensive oak treatment and aging. I am simplifying of course, and you could lump the first two together if you like and there is lots of diversity in each category.

Carbonic maceration is quite popular here. At it’s best it can produce fresh, fruity blueberry bubblegum flavored wines with that retain a savory note and they match excellently with the local food. Now, I am not often a fan of wines made with carbonic maceration, but when done well it seems to suit Mencia from Bierzo quite well. The young wines step this up a little in terms of structure and generally have some time in wood, french oak seems to be the popular choice, although many wines have a blend of american and french oak.

Mature wines, or ‘raised’ wines, don’t really follow a defined trend in terms wood treatment or aging here and the crianza system is not prescribed by the DO. So there is no fixed minimum time in wood or bottle (there are lots of other rules that govern the production however). As such producers are free to do what they like with wood aging. There are wines with full on new oak for 18 or 24 months, wines with only old wood, fermented in old lagres and everything in between. In general these are the wines that are causing all the buzz on this region and they range from huge, taninic big oaky wines to smooth, almost Burgundian styled wines. As always producer is important to pick the right kind of wines for your taste.

To my mind the leading producer in terms of quality is Descendientes de J.Palacios (lets call them DJP for short), a collaboration between Ricardo Palacios and his uncle Alvaro. I’ll give a full report on these guys later on, but the work that is being done by these guys is inspiring and they have brought significant muscle to the table, both in terms of experience and know how coupled with smart investment.  Focused on very high quality, DJP produce wines on a similar model to burgundy: there is a regional wine from a blend of their own and bought grapes, called Petalos, a ‘village’ wine from the vines around the village of Corullon, called Corullion strangely enough, and a range of single vineyard wines of high up on the slopes surrounding  Corullion. Similarly, Martin Codax are making some great wines here and have really worked hard to capture the essence of Bierzo and Mencia. Other producers to look out for here in Australia are Domino de Tares and Luna Beberide. Given these four producers you should be able to see a good cross section of what is going on here and get a good feel for the region.