May 19, 2024 - The medium+ intensity nose is a bit quiet, offering maturing and slightly reductive aromas of dark fruited, blackberry, and black plum surrounding a core of savoury wet earth and sandalwood. On the dry, medium+ bodied palate it is a touch spicy with delicious dark fruited, blackberry, savoury wet earth, and wood spice flavours. Acids are juicy and well-balanced, while the smooth tannins are well-integrated with some chalky textured grip. Savoury earth and mineral notes linger on the finish, with very good length.
April 23, 2024 - Purchased as a cellar-defender candidate from Rimi in Rīga, on promotion at €8.39, down from €13.99. It is adorned with a shiny silver ''Selection by Rimi'' sticker, so it might become a regular line for the trader.
Medium ruby. As well spotted and remarked by another taster this year, the nose initially bears a similarity to gamay. The nose suggests decent ripeness of straight-forward blueberry-like fruit, but after an hour it gains complexity. Dark cherry and damson plum take centre stage, with green herbs, leather, animal fur and malt extract each making brief appearances on the wings. Over the 2nd hour, some intermittent charred notes emerge, which - if I hadn't looked at the producer's fact sheet for the wine - would have made me think that this had come in contact with toasty American oak. (Maybe the indigenous yeasts bring out this nuance? Maybe some of the grapes got sunburnt?)
The palate doesn't show any wood, however, and seems to be denser than a gamay would be. Properly concentrated crunchy berry, but while it's faultlessly balanced, up to the first hour it's not showing the features that brought on the gushing reviews from Decanter and Tamlyn Currin from Jancis Robinson's site. It would be unfair to omit the admission that both of these reviews were in 2021, so I strongly suspected over that first hour - especially given the wine is closed by a Diam 1 grade cork - that the Matilda Nieves mencia is best enjoyed as young as possible and that I'd simply missed the boat. Yet afterwards, it gains weight, a silky texture, concentration and a delicious sweetness just before the crunchy finish. Harvested by hand and clearly made with care, this is very good plus and a great cellar defender. I expect fans of nebbiolo and pinot noir would enjoy this.
April 20, 2024 - Kate liked it. 7.5. Interesting defender. Low to no tannins.
March 29, 2024 - Tasted next to the Finca Cuarta Ribeira Sacra Mencia 2020. I really wanted to like this one. Such great reviews, others’ tasting notes sound great, and a good price. Unfortunately, this one is not for me. Too much fruit, not enough complexity, and some kind of off putting aroma/flavour/jamminess (even though it’s dry) that reminded me of mass produced commercial wines. Don’t quite understand the hype. Especially since the Finca Cuarta totally outshined this at a much lower price. Maybe I’ll give it another try. Probably not.
March 23, 2024 - Good wine, excellent QPR at $11 or so. Fairly basic profile, nice balance of fruit, mineral and tannin. I think I'll go up the price/quality scale for general purpose wine, but a great choice for a party.
January 23, 2024 - real nice
January 13, 2024 - Great value. On the lighter, juicier side. Reminds me of Gamay. Tart red cherry, red licorice, juice berry candy and leather. Mellow tannins, bright and persistent acidity. Addition of tart cranberry on the palate. Fun wine. Would buy again.
November 24, 2023 - Nice wine, light and fresh, clean red berry flavor. (That 97 point score from Decanter is crazy tho.)
October 15, 2023 - Excellent with pork belly
September 28, 2023 - Deep purple colour
Lots of small bubbles when first poured.
First sniff has aromas of cola, yeast, bubblegum (carbonic-mac-aromas), which Anna described as ”julmust”.
The nose is dense at first, where I also immediately found reductive aromas such as cabbage, sweaty-meaty (and a slightly moldy-woody nose), so both these clusters makes for a very fresh wine in need of aeration.
Other aromas are blackberry, black pepper, dark raspberry/plum & nutmeg.
Palate shows medium (+) acidity, medium (chewy) tannins, medium body and medium alcohol. The chewiness of the tannins are really something else, which gives it a great texture, longevity and character. Or, as I wrote: ”Great structure with a chewy & fresh feel!”. Finish is black pepper, dry licorice and old oak.
Great value and a bargain, especially if you apart from nose/taste also look at how interesting, nuanced and a conversation starter this wine is!