The Emergence of Mencia Wines

It’s not Tempranillo, it’s not Garnacha – it’s Mencía. And it might be the most interesting Spanish grape you’ve never heard of. Once thought to be a cousin of Cabernet Franc due to their many similarities, it is actually the offspring of two rare Portuguese grapes, and is making a comeback along Spain’s Atlantic coast.

Mencía is known for being fresh and medium-bodied, with an aromatic character, and for having a deep red colour in the glass. Its typical flavours sometimes overlap with medium-bodied wines from France, like Cabernet Franc or Pinot Noir. You can discover hints of pomegranate in its profile, along with cherry liqueur, liquorice, a strong earthy side, and hints of gravelly minerality. 

In this article, we will explore the emergence of Mencía as a popular and refined wine in Spain, and recommend some wines for you to get a taste for this fascinating red grape.

What is Mencía? The Grape, its Emergence, and Styles

Mencía is indigenous to the western coast of the Iberian peninsula. It is grown most widely in the northwestern pocket of Spain that sits above Portugal – also known as Galicia. However, it is also grown in Portugal, where it is known variously as Jaen, Giao, or Loureiro Tinto. 

Historically, Mencía was grown en masse and used to make inexpensive table wine, or used in field blends. In recent years, particularly in the Galician regions of Bierzo, Ribeira Sacra, and Valdeorras, Mencía has emerged as a single-varietal wine, evolving away from the use of heavy oaking and extraction towards elegant, terroir-driven cuvées. 

This movement began in the 1990s, with entrepreneurial winemakers such as Fernando González, Pedro Rodríguez, and Alvaro Palacios (who also spearheaded the rejuvenation of the Priorat region in Catalonia). These pioneers discovered abandoned vineyards throughout the region, and experimented with Galicia’s high-altitude, windswept locations, planting them with old vines – this combination has proven to be an excellent basis for this new style of refined wines.

Another important figure in the revitalisation of Mencia is Luis Gutiérrez, a wine critic from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and co-founder of elmundovino.com, which features wine reviews entirely in Spanish. He has played such a large part in elevating the reputation of Mencia (and Spanish wine as a whole) that he was awarded the Spanish National Gastronomy Award for journalism, by Spain’s minister for tourism in 2012.

Today, Mencía wines continue to be developed and polished by legendary Spanish winemakers such as Raúl Pérez Pereira, and the younger generation, like Diego Magana, the founder of Dominio de Anza. 

So what can you expect from a modern bottle of Mencía? We will dive into our recommendations next, but for people who love Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc, it can be a refreshing alternative. It’s diverse, easy to pair with food, and always maintains a pleasant freshness due to its naturally high acidity.

Five Brilliant Mencía Wines to Discover

Wine number one is from the aforementioned Dominio de Anza, Finca El Rapolao. It is an extremely precise wine, sourced from a single 0.5-hectare plot in Bierzo, which contains small portions of the Alicante Bouschet and Sousón grapes. It strikes a perfect balance between delicacy and full-blooded red fruit character, with hints of iron and finely grained tannins. 

It was made in the rustic, traditionalist image, but with modern finesse and techniques, providing a wonderful taste of the Galician region, and the perfect place to start your journey. Dominio de Anza is a great name to look out for on your shelves – it is run by Navarra native Diego Magana, and also produces wines from the famous Rioja region.

As we make our way down the list, you’ll start to notice that Mencía grapes offer incredible value for money. Finca El Rapalao is one of the most expensive wines on our list, and even then, it won’t break the bank. 

Our next recommendation is from the Michelini i Mufatto winery, which was founded by Argentinian winemakers in Bierzo. A Mercred has been rated 90+ by multiple critics, and is sourced from a vineyard in Molinaseca, which lies just over the border of Galicia in León. It was planted in loamy soils rich in slate and quartz, which provide hints of graphite and wet stone in the resulting wine. It is more of an aromatic and elegant Mencía, with subtle earthy hints and notes of red berries.

Guímaro winery was founded in Ribeira Sacra in the 1990s, before Mencía’s rejuvenation, and even before Ribeira Sacra was defined as an appellation. It is one of several wineries in Galicia where the famous Raúl Pérez joined as a consultant, introducing modern techniques and a more low-intervention approach.

Camino Real is our recommendation from Guímaro (a word meaning ‘rebel’), an incredibly affordable Mencía that you have to taste to believe. It is delightfully aromatic, sourced from plots planted with old vines in the Amanda subregion. Oak ageing was employed during production, softening the wine’s tannins without overpowering Mencía’s delicate profile. It is juicy and vibrant in the mouth, with expressive red fruits, fresh herbs, and tentative hints of earth and forest floor.

Wine number four is from Verónica Ortega winery, named after its founder, a rising star of Spanish wine. She started making wines as an apprentice at Domaine de la Romanée Conti and Raúl Pérez’s winery in Valtuille, before settling down in the region of Bierzo in 2012.

Ortega’s ROC Mencía is a terroir-driven wine made from 100% hand-picked Mencía, making it the purest example of the grape on this list. We highly recommend it for newcomers to the grape. It is expressive and fragrant in the glass, with a wide array of red berry flavours, dried herbs, purple flowers, and a velvety tannic finish. It is a stylish, Burgundy-inspired Galician wine, and a perfect example of how far the Mencía grape has come since the 1990s.

Our final single bottle recommendation is from Envínate winery – Envínate being a term that commands you to ‘wine yourself’. The winery is split into two locations: Ribeira Sacra in Galicia, and the Canary Islands, both of which are heavily influenced by the Atlantic Ocean.

Lousas Doad was sourced from several old-vine locations in the Ribeira Sacra appellation, and although it is mostly Mencía, it also includes 11% of Garnacha, Brancellao, and Merenzao. It is a classic Mencía, medium-bodied and extraordinarily juicy and powerful in the mouth, with notes of rose petals, sour cherry, and salty Atlantic minerality.

Serving and Tasting Tips for Mencía

As a light to medium-bodied wine, there are a couple of things you can do with Mencía to heighten the tasting experience, which are slightly different from Tempranillo or Garnacha, for example. 

Mencía is usually at its best when served slightly below room temperature, so we recommend either placing it or taking it out of the refrigerator about half an hour before serving it. Additionally, Mencía is a highly versatile wine, so it will be excellent when paired with anything from traditional Galician manchego cheese, to chorizo, mushroom risotto, or a hearty meat stew.

As for glassware, you can serve it in pretty much anything you like – but due to its similarities to Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir, we recommend serving it in Burgundy-style glasses, with a wide bottom. Decanting can be helpful for younger styles of the wine, or more naturally acidic styles, but it entirely depends on the wine and the winemaker.

Finally, an excellent way to get a taste for Mencía is through comparative tasting, whether this is against other medium-bodied reds, or different Mencía wines. For this, we can’t recommend our Premium Tasting Case enough.

It contains a curated selection of bottles, many of which are from wineries we have already discussed, such as Envínate, Guimaro, Dominio de Anza, and the legendary Raúl Pérez. It can be both an educational and gastronomical experience tasting these wines side-by-side, and as is usually the case with Mencía, even the premium options won’t leave you penniless.

Mencía is one of wine’s most fascinating rags-to-riches stories, from a humble table wine to a wine that sits alongside fancy dishes in high-end restaurants. However, it is a grape that still goes under-appreciated very often – now is the time to jump on the Mencía train, whether you’re a collector or a beginner. We hope this exploration of the Galician grape will prove useful in your own wine journey, whether you have a taste for classic, rustic red wine, or cutting-edge modern Mencía, and that you’ll soon be lifting a toast to this underrated beauty.