Mengoba Estaladiña 2023

Mengoba Estaladiña is made by Bodegas y Viñedos Mengoba in Carracedelo, in the Bierzo, the winery Gregory Pérez founded in 2007 after training in Bordeaux at Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste and Château Cos d'Estournel. The wine is made from Estaladina, a rare native variety once almost lost and now recovered from old mixed plantings, prized for its perfume and freshness. Bierzo sits in a sheltered basin in north-west Spain where Atlantic and continental influences meet, and the best sites are slopes of slate and quartzite that drain freely and keep the fruit fresh, giving a pale, fragrant style with fine tannin and a mineral cut rather than weight, here at a moderate 13.5 per cent. Farming is sustainable and low-intervention. Ageing is ten months in large 500-litre French oak, where the lower ratio of wood to wine and slow oxygen exchange round the texture while leaving the delicate aromatics intact. The colour is pale, bright ruby. The nose shows red currant, wild red berries, cherry and rose over crushed herbs and white pepper. The palate is light to medium-bodied and fresh, with fine, silky tannin and a stony, savoury finish. Serve cool at 14 to 15 degrees. It suits roast chicken, game and mushrooms.