Algueira 2015 Ribeira Sacra DO
Staining red. Dank barrels. Typical gorgeous Mencia. High religious rocks. Pomegranate. Grit of the soil. Holy river. Bright lovely smoke. Charcoal. Black rocks. Not hedge funds.
“There are just two kinds of jobs in America now; Coal and Merrill Lynch.”
100% Mencia from 40 year old vines planted on those steep schist canyon banks of the river Sil. Solcacos are what they call the little pocketed terraces. Hand harvested, zipped up the hill on monorail winches. Foot stomped, natural yeasts with long drawn out fermentation, this joven sees only steel. Nothing filtered, nothing fined.
Ribiera Sacra sits in the rainy cooler Atlantic influenced province of Galicia in North West Spain, above Portugal. Nearby Bierzo gets a little more fame, but loses out on the rawness, making an easy comparison for head to head terroir tasting. Ribeira Sacra has the funk and wit. Bierzo often has the power and the glory. The full Graham Greene.