Two Wines: Mencia - First Taste of a Unique Spanish Grape. and Saint Joseph - a Powerful Syrah

I tried a wine made from a new grape this snowy weekend. The grape is called Mencia.

The Mencia grape (pronounced Men-thee-ya) is a Spanish grape that is grown in the Northwest of Spain. The main areas it is grown is in Bierzo, Valdeorras, and Ribeira Sacra. It is a red grape that was historically used for bulk type, watery wines but things have recently changed - producers are concentrating the flavours and using old vines to limit yields.  However, it is not a grape that is really well known.

So, how did I hear about it?

I was listening to one of my podcasts - I think it was either Wine For Normal People or Grape Nation - and an expert was talking about one of the real up and coming places in the world for wine. He said that the Ribeira Sacra region, in Spain, was an area of fantastic wines and that the prices was great value for what you get.

I looked online and found that the BC Liquor Store carries exactly one wine from Ribeira Sacra - and so I rushed out and bought a couple of bottles. Friday night, while we waited for our dinner to cook, we popped open a bottle, and I was blown away!

The wine that we found was a Prior de Panton Finca Cuarta Mencia from Ribeira Sacra ($20). Its colour was deep red - almost purple in colour. On the nose were strong aromas of red fruit such as red cherries and raspberries. On the palate, though, was a structured wine with medium to high tannins and medium to high acidity. There were coffee and tobacco flavours as well as red and even some black fruit.  The finish was nice and long and overall was a wonderful wine. Sadly, little of the wine lasted until the meal was ready. I would probably decant this wine for an hour or so next time .

This wine made me think of a wine I had last weekend as it was similar in structure. That wine was a 2015 Saint Joseph Domaine Courbis from the Northern Rhone ($42). Like all Northern Rhone wines, it was a Syrah wine but a Syrah wine that had some great structure - similar to the Mencia.

It was a wine that I did decant which was probably a good thing.  It had some spice and pepper as well as red fruits on both the palate and the nose. It was strong in tannins - almost a bit too strong - and really could have been aged another three to five years. This was a definitely powerful Syrah and really stood out from some of the easier drinking Syrahs that I have had from the Okanagan.

Both of these wines surprised me with their intensity. I would definitely buy them again but would probably purchase the one from Ribeira Sacra more often for two reasons. First, it seemed ready to drink from the bottle and didn't really require ageing - although it would probably be fine with a couple of years in the cellar. Second, the price was quite reasonable - after all, I could get two of the Mencia for the price of the Syrah!

Next week, I am attending the Vancouver Wine Festival - and can't wait to go! The two featured countries are Portugal and Spain (although I can't seem to find a winery that will be attending from Ribeira Sacra) but there will be wines from all over the world. Should be a fantastic time!