Advertisement

Who Likes This Wine(43)

  1. cono_sur

    cono_sur

    3,064 Tasting Notes

  2. evgbog

    evgbog

    71 Tasting Notes

  3. Loudounwine

    Loudounwine

    66 Tasting Notes

More

Food Pairing Tags

Community users think this wine goes best with:

Add My Food Pairing Tags

Community Tasting Notes (62) Avg Score: 89.4 points

  • 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.

    Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

  • 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.

    Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comments (1)

  • Kate liked it. 7.5. Interesting defender. Low to no tannins.

    Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

  • 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.

    Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

  • 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.

    Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

View all 62 Community Tasting Notes

What Do You Think? Add a Tasting Note

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.

WineAlign

  • By Michael Godel
    12/5/2022, (See more on WineAlign...)

    (Matilda Nieves Mencia, D.O. Ribeira Sacra red) Login and sign up and see review text.
  • By John Szabo, MS
    12/5/2022, (See more on WineAlign...)

    (Matilda Nieves Mencia, D.O. Ribeira Sacra red) Login and sign up and see review text.
  • By David Lawrason
    12/3/2022, (See more on WineAlign...)

    (Matilda Nieves Mencia, D.O. Ribeira Sacra red) Login and sign up and see review text.

Decanter

JancisRobinson.com

Decanter

  • By Sarah Jane Evans MW
    Galician Reds, 8/24/2021, (See more on Decanter...)

    (Bodegas Rectoral de Amandi, Matilda Nieves, Mencia, Ribeira Sacra, Galicia, Spain, Red) Login and subscribe to see review text.

NOTE: Some content is property of WineAlign and Decanter and JancisRobinson.com.

Add a Pro Review Add Your Own Reviews:
 

Advertisement

×