TN: 2020 Rectoral de Amandi Ribeira Sacra Matilda Nieves

2020 Rectoral de Amandi Ribeira Sacra Matilda Nieves - must be my week for odd varietals. Mencia (the 'c' is pronounced as a 'th') is an Iberian grape that can be rather interesting. Colour is reasonably dark, a bit darker than a pinot and the medium bodied wine has a slight peppery hint in the nose. Supple long finish. Worth a try if you can find it.

I also like Mencia quite a bit, both from Ribeira Sacra and Bierzo. I've mostly had it from two sources, José Palacios's Petalos Bierzo and Raul Perez's Ultreia St Jacques Bierzo. Your notes agree with my own impressions of the grape.

A good grape to 'keep up your sleeve' if blind tasters get hard to stump. Could be pinot, could be gamay, could be.....

[Jenise]

At first I saw 'rectal'...that aside, in a wine shop I was once blinded on an older mencia, don't recall the vintage or producer but about 15 years old, and it had a lot of the qualities of a warm climate pinot noir, but was a lot richer, kind of like a pinot-merlot blend would be if there ever was such a thing. Really attractive.