Megoba 2007 is a very trendy red wine from Bierzo made from the outstanding Mencía grape.  It is so trendy that its price seems to have gone up 25% in its first year of release!  It’s a wine made by Gregory Pérez, the well known enologist that is behind the Luna Beberide winery.   He originally from Bordeaux but of Spanish descent and has settled into making wines in the Bierzo area.  I love the Luna Beberide wines…they are really some of the most elegant Mencías around.  This wine is at the other end of the spectrum.  It really shows the intensity and concentration that Mencía can give.  It is from 80 year old vines with really low yields…one of those great sites that offer such unique terroir.  I have to say that in the mouth, I found the tannins a little too intense.  I loved the nose and I loved the fruit in the mouth…but the tannins were really tough, closing down the finish. We were drinking it with friends so there was no time to let it open up.  It is a 2007 and hopefully the tannins will be tamed by a little more time in bottle.  I’d like to try the wine again in a several months.  I’m also anxious to try Megoba’s white wine made from one of my favorite white Spanish grapes:  Godello.   Read on for more details on this wine. Also check out my post about the Mencía grape and about the Tierras de Luna wine from Luna Beberide.

Bierzo is a great wine area that I’ve written about several times.  It is home to the very high quality red grape Mencía as well as the excellent white grape Godello.  Mencía has become quite trendy and it’s harder to find good value these days.  Also I’ve noticed an interesting trend in my wine-tasting groups…Mencía seems to have a love/hate effect on them.  A minority loves it and the majority hates it!  I think this has something to do with the grapes strong personality.  It is often intensely mineral and structured, with a lot of acidity and tannin.  There is also a wonderful, aromatic, floral, red fruit side to the wines, but sometimes that can be a bit lost in the intensity of the structure.  Also Bierzos frequently come in 2 styles than do not make fans.  The first is a joven or “young”  wine with no or very little oak, with exuberant young fruit…at its best this style can showcase the Mencía fruit, but is at its worst it has too much of that candy-like carbonic maceration fruit…aromas of banana and sweets.  The second style is the other extreme….over-oaked, a style that makes people more comfortable, but doesn’t make Mencía stand out.  The ideal is somewhere in between.  Unfortunately for every great Bierzo, there are a handful of indifferent or poor ones….and the trendiness of Mencía is only exacerbating the situation.  Mencía is top flight grape, but it is a difficult grape to get right….it is hard to tame its intensity and preserve its delicate floral aromas.  It is not the easiest grape to drink but when it’s just right it has given me some of my best Spanish wine experiences.  The wine I’m rating today is considered Bierzo’s top joven-style Mencía.

Happy New Year!  We’re in the final stretch of the holidays…only Reyes (Epiphany) to go on 6 Jan.  At least two more lamb and seafood feasts to go! 

When I am trying to select a red for a holiday meal I try to stay clear of the big, extracted, oaky wines that seem to dominate in the Spanish market these days.  When asked for a suggestion, I often steer people towards Rioja…though modern Riojas styles are more and more extracted…they still largely retain a freshness of fruit and acidity that complements many foods.

Confusing title perhaps, but I want to give tasting notes on one of my favourite Bierzo wines in very different vintages and also describe how that same wine is being altered for export to the US.

Bierzo is producing many outstanding red wines from the excellent indigenous grape Mencía. The region is very hot…producers from all over Spain are buying vineyards there. The top end wines are winning recognition from national and international wine critics. The prices, though still reasonable, are rising quickly. There are still a few great bargains…one of them is Cepas Viejas from the winery Dominio de Tares.