Community Tasting Note

Rote Kappelle wrote:

Monday, July 17, 2023 - I felt a desire to expand my limited knowledge of Spanish wine. I like the food, I like Don Quixote and Lorca and I especially like Caganer and Tio de Nadal. I admire Basque separatists and Catalan separatists. I love Sherry, being something of a dry sack, myself.

This maker appealed to me, as it was something that promised to be a little different - not more of the usual Rioja, or Priorat, with which I have a nodding familiarity (but no more). This is a cooler vintage of wines influenced by the brisk Atlantic climate of Galicia and said to speak of the slate on which the vineyards are sited. It is also, unfortunately the birth-place of that murderous runt Franco, but I prefer to think of Veiga and Andrade.

This is a single vineyard wine, old vines, using a mix of indigenous grape varieties. These include 90% Mencia (once thought to be related to Cabernet Franc) and small amounts of Garnacha Tintorera, Brancellao and others. I pretend no real familiarity with the varieties, but I gather that Brancellao is used for aromatics of red fruits and spices, GT is used mostly for colour and perhaps providing some depth and Mencia provides lifted red fruits and often quite pronounced capsicum, leaf and earthy notes.

The Ribbiero Sacra, from whence this maker hails seems to be an area that is gaining recognition for fine wine.

Whilst there are things to admire in this wine I think I made a fundamental error in buying this vintage. A cooler year is always going to be a challenge with a wine made predominantly from a grape that just loves to toss out lots of green elements, even in warm years.

The wine has a nice ruby colour, quite bright and with some depth (thank you Mr GT). The nose is interesting, with some very attractive red fruits, a lot of perfume lift but then also some definite leaf, capsicum and earth and something almost like a sour Chinotto.

The palate is shorter than I would expect from quality wine, although intensity is ok, whilst it lasts. Tannins are there but not oppressive in their weight. However, they are quite hard and unripe. The wine is light on its feet but sour and hard to love. There is a balance issue here. I love some green characters in my wine, to add complexity and avoid fruit juice syndrome. This has way too much greenery and it is hard work drinking this, even with food of the fatty, casserole variety that I decided might give it a chance to shine.

I really would like to score this higher, but I just don't see how. Arguably, I have been over generous. I might try a vintage from a warm year, when I think it might really come into its own but 2021 just took all the nasties and magnified them. What a pity. The song for this would be "You Want It Darker' with its refrain of 'We kill the flame'.

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